Promise of the real

The ever-prolific Neil Young has assured fans that 2025 will feature a new album, with the Canadian veteran offering an update on his debut album with new band The Chrome Hearts.

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News of the upcoming record comes just weeks after Young shared “Big Change”, the first single to be released with his nascent band. The Chrome Hearts first debuted by Young back in September 2024, just months after an unspecified illness necessitated a “big unplanned break” from touring with longtime backing group Crazy Horse.

The Chrome Hearts, as Young himself describes, “reconfigures musicians he has worked with before”, with guitarist Micah Nelson, bassist Corey McCormick, drummer Anthony Logerfo, and organist Spooner Oldham comprising the lineup. While Nelson, McCormick, and Logerfo have performed with Young as members of Promise of the Real, Oldham has worked with Young for decades, appearing on records such as 1978’s Comes a Time and 1992’s Harvest Moon.

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Working with producers John Hanlon and his brother-in-law Lou Adler at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La studio in Malibu, Young explains that “Big Change” is the first taste of a forthcoming album from The Chrome Hearts, with the material being written throughout November and December.

“They feel fresh to me and I am very happy to have this all ready for you. It won’t be long now and it will be great to have new songs to play on the road this summer in Europe, the USA and Canada,” Young said via his website. “We are looking forward to that!”

Young added that the record is now in the mastering stage for vinyl, CD, and digital copies that are expected to be released in only a couple of months.

“I am very happy and relieved to have ths [sic] done in the short time it took,” he explained. “The album art has been completed and handed in with Jenice Heo. I am working on the lyric sheets now, hoping to hand-write the words and get them in, in time..

“It is a happy feeling I have today, knowing I have made an album I think people will enjoy. I hope it’s out in April. That would be pretty fast.”

Presuming the April release date is adhered to, it would make the as-yet-untitled record the second release from Young in 2025, with his “lost” 1977 album Oceanside Countryside set to drop on Feb. 14.

Young and The Chrome Hearts will also be performing at England’s Glastonbury Festival in June. Young’s inclusion on the lineup was marred by an “error in the information” which initially saw him distance himself from the event, labelling it a “corporate turn-off”.