America ‘already great’: Young

In tense times, Maroon 5 doesn’t want protest songs

NEW YORK, Nov 4, (AFP): Rock legend Neil Young on Friday took aim at President Donald Trump — declaring America to be “already great” — as he announced his latest album.

The prolific 71-year-old will on Dec 1 release “The Visitor,” his 39th studio album and his second with Promise of the Real, a hard-charging back-up band that has brought comparisons to Crazy Horse which appeared on Young’s classic works.

Young released a first song off the album entitled “Already Great,” a pointed rejoinder to Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again.”

To a rugged rock guitar backed up by piano, Young starts off the song by mentioning, “I’m Canadian, by the way” but voicing love for the “freedom” found in life in the United States.

The song then slows down in a harmonic chorus with echoes of Pink Floyd, as he sings, “You’re already great / You’re the promised land / You’re the helping hand.”

The song culminates in a sample of a chant of “Whose streets? Our streets,” a slogan frequently heard at US protests that is commonly associated with the Black Lives Matter movement against police abuses.

Young is no stranger to politics. 1989’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” his most identifiable song, attacked the policies of then president George H. W. Bush, but soon instead became an anthem in Eastern Europe as communism collapsed.

Trump played “Rockin’ in the Free World” in his insurgent right-wing campaign for the White House, angering Young among a slew of other left-leaning artists whose music was embraced by the real estate mogul.

Promise of the Real, a band heavily influenced by Young, is fronted by guitarist and singer Lukas Nelson, the son of country great Willie Nelson.

Young last recorded with Promise of the Real for 2015’s “The Monsanto Years,” on which the die-hard environmentalist rocker attacked the giant agricultural company over genetically modified seeds.

Young’s last release, “Hitchhiker,” came in September — recorded over one night in 1976 but never formally put out, even though a number of the songs made it to later works.

Tensions may be mounting dangerously around the world but for Maroon 5, this isn’t the time for protest songs — it’s time to dance.

The chart-topping pop-rockers on Friday release their sixth studio album, “Red Pill Blues,” a collection of toe-tapping, funk-inflected tracks that mine the emotional drama of human relationships.

Frontman Adam Levine, whose ever-impressive falsetto again powers much of the music, was unapologetic about not joining the growing number of pop stars who are getting political on their 2017 albums, saying he can count on one hand the number of protest songs he found successful.

“I can tell you right now that every songwriter that just sat down and said, ‘I’m going to write a song that is going to change the world,’ probably did not do that,” Levine, lounging deeply in his chair, told AFP in a New York hotel suite.

The 38-year-old singer — who has become an even bigger presence in US pop culture as a coach on television talent show “The Voice” — is not afraid of expressing his political views, which lean left. He has taken to social media to criticize President Donald Trump and has been a longtime champion of gay rights.

But he said: “Sometimes people trivialize the existence of pop music a lot by saying, ‘It’s stupid, let’s write a protest song.’ But that’s an extremely narrow-minded way to look at it.”

“I think that pop music has a level of sophistication that sometimes goes undetected,” he said.

“Releasing the right kind of songs at the right times is an extremely important and underappreciated art form,” Levine said, adding after a short pause: “In my humble opinion.”

“Red Pill Blues” through its title offers subtle commentary on the current moment. The imagery comes from sci-fi cult classic “The Matrix,” whose protagonist is offered a choice between the “red pill” of knowledge and the “blue pill” of ignorance.

People today are “reluctantly informed — sometimes incorrectly informed — but I think there is a lot of reality rearing its ugly head,” Levine said.