Neil Young With Crazy Horse Toast

The year before Neil Young tracked 2002's meandering and sometimes draggy Are You Passionate?, he recorded some of the songs with his longtime backing band Crazy Horse, trying on the fit of the semi-soulful material with them before ultimately choosing to re-record with groove masters Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Seven-song album Toast consists of the long-shelved Crazy Horse sessions from 2001 and includes versions of four songs that materialized in different forms on Are You Passionate? as well as three previously unreleased outtakes. Despite their reputation as one of rock & roll's loosest, scrappiest institutions, Crazy Horse's playing is surprisingly refined on Toast, with their takes on some of the Are You Passionate? tunes being hard to differentiate from the ever-smooth Booker T. versions. "How Ya Doin'?" (aka "Mr. Disappointment") is superior on Toast, with the tempo slowed just a little bit and Young approaching the vocals with his familiar achy near-falsetto rather than the experimental grumble he sang with on the AYP? version.