Yesterday, Rolling Stone revealed an exclusive video of seasoned Canadian rocker Neil Young performing a new song called “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?,” off of what will be his 35th studio release. The new album, entitled Storytone, is set to come out on November 4th via Warner Bros. Records, and will be his second album release this year. Every track featured within his latest body of work, including “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?”, was recorded alongside a 92-piece orchestra and choir conducted by Chris Walden and Michael Bearden.
The new video appropriately features Young wearing a black t-shirt that simply says “Earth,” as he sings “Protect the land from the greed of man, take out the dams / Stand up to oil, protect the plants and renew the soil / Who’s going to stand up and save the Earth?” Young’s orchestra and their warm, rich sound fill the studio as a conductor leads the touching performance. The environmentalist overtones of the single come as no surprise as Young has quite the track record when it comes to green awareness. In 1985, he co-founded a benefit concert known as Farm Aid, hosted in Champaign, Illinois, that helped raise over $9 million for small family farmers in the US.
Despite his roots in outspoken environmental activism, Young told Rolling Stone that the song was “the most different thing that [he’d] ever attempted.” The other nine tracks on the album include “Plastic Flowers,” “I Want To Drive My Car,” “Glimmer,” “Say Hello To Chicago,” “Tumbleweed,” “Like You Used To Do,” “I’m Glad I Found You,” “When I Watch You Sleeping,” and “All Those Dreams”. In the spirit of “Who’s Gonna Stand Up?”, the anticipated album’s artwork relays a relatively straightforward, positive message. The cover shows what looks like a watercolor painting of an old-fashioned car in a grassy field, with a license plate that reads “Peace, XOXO, love life.”
Storytone was produced by Volume Dealers (Young and Niko Bolas). And if the grandiosity of a 92-piece orchestra is too much for some fans, they have the option of buying the deluxe edition of the album, which includes both the solo and standard versions of all ten tracks. As for Young’s old school fans, the album’s vinyl release is set for December 16th.