Barn didn’t have to be this good. More than 50 years after the first Neil Young & Crazy Horse album, the all-time rock classic Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, the group decamped to a restored 19th century barn in the Rocky Mountains during the summer of 2021 to lay down a new collection of songs. The fresh, crisp air did them well: Barn is a clear-eyed, righteously ragged, emotionally piercing rock-and-roll record. It’s almost unbelievable to think that a half century on, this collection of rock stalwarts can still crank it up this much. And yet, these 10 songs perfectly encapsulate the spirit of the genre: loose, loud, swaggering and fun. Barn kicks off with first single “Song of the Seasons,” the only real descendent here of, say, Comes A Time. (Most of these tunes share more DNA with 1990’s Ragged Glory.) It’s a lovely acoustic folk tune, with backing harmonies from his Crazy Horse compatriots. But the album really lights up beginning with “Heading West”—from that first raw, jagged guitar tone, you can tell Young is having a wild time. Same goes for “Canerican,” a ripping rocker with Young looking back on his long, winding history: “I was born in Canada, came south to join a band/ Got caught up in the big time, travelin’ through the land,” his voice (and guitar solo) every bit as proud and raging as in decades past. Barn could’ve been made by a young rock-and-roll band, and it’d be well-received. But to have been created by a crew of rock lifers in their 70s— clearly having a blast making music together—it should be celebrated.