'Some get stoned, / Some get strange, / But sooner or later / It all gets real.' Neil Young has always gotten real, but this record is indeed on the beach, a lighthearted fantasy, too winsome in spirit to be somber in truth, tho w/ a half buried car and overcast skies. It's hard to place Young, he's such a genre-bending artist, tho at the same time almost impossibly traditional: that's what makes it magic, I guess. 'All the bush league batters / Are left to die on the diamond.' I hesitate to call it Americana, that'd be to attribute symbolism to his lyrics, which isn't fitted. Like Hopper and Sinatra, he's a master of American solitude, but he's more mystical, and a lighter spirit. 'I need a crowd of people / But I can't face them day to day.' Gently straight.