For the most part, the album encompasses extremely lengthy pieces (the opener, "Driftin' Back," clocks in at 27:30) that balance strong songwriting with the jam element in one loud and proud sweep. There's an underlying sadness in "Driftin' Back" and enough changes to sustain its length--the chords that accompany "blocking out my anger" are especially effective, and the mood lightens when Young feigns disgust: "Don't want my MP3."
Like many Neil Young sets, Psychedelic Pill includes a quiet moment of beauty ("For the Love of Man") an autobiographical slice of country rock ("Born In Ontario") and even personal nostalgia ("Twisted Road," which recalls the thrill of hearing "Like a Rolling Stone" for the first time; those who can't get into even the earliest records by Bob Dylan just don't get it). Yet the album is anything but cut and dried.
The utter triumph of "Walk Like a Giant," close to the end of the record, is more than sixteen minutes of brilliance, as Neil and band survey a ravaged land and that part of them that is now lost to a world that doesn't make sense anymore. Expressing emotion with power chords and goofy whistling, Neil's playing encompasses well-thought out guitar passages and pure noise, kind of like an amp dropping bombs--he sounds like he's playing octaves and punching someone's guts out at the same time.
Thankfully, there are two versions of the title track. The first take of "Psychedelic Pill" is overwhelmed by out-of-phase factors that quickly wear thin; for me, it's like an old cassette that's swishing around in your player and you realize that tape is ruined. A more straightforward version (or mix) concludes Psychedelic Pill, which comes as a small relief.
So how "psychedelic" is this album? Like Jimi Hendrix's best work, this is really too hard-hitting to be classified as psychedelia, yet so was the Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows," the greatest piece of the genre. In another phase of my life, I might have called this album indulgent. But when I'm going on long drives and playing these lengthy tracks, it's an uplifting combination. Psychedelic Pill won't make my single disc year-end compilation of favorites because its epic tracks would use up too much time and I'd have to exclude other artists. It feels good to say that the best performances here are the longest ones. Nothing wrong with that.