Are You Passionate?

1	You're My Girl 4:41
2	Mr. Disappointment 5:26
3	Differently 6:04
4	(Quit) Don't Say You Love Me 6:02
5	Let's Roll 5:54
6	Are You Passionate? 5:08
7	Goin' Home 8:49
8	When I Hold You in My Arms 4:44
9	Be With You 3:32
10	Two Old Friends 6:15
11	She's a Healer 9:08

Barnes & Noble

Offered by this consistently unpredictable rock icon, the title Are You Passionate? could be anything from a rhetorical question to fightin' words -- and over the course of this well-measured soul-rock collection, Young gives both options a whirl. Backed, by and large, by the legendary Memphis team of Booker T. and Duck Dunn, Young uses his own passion as a balm, an assurance to listeners that everything's gonna be alright. That comes across most acutely in the nostalgic lilt of "Two Old Friends," in which that ragged falsetto wings out higher and higher, and the Latin-tinged "She's a Healer," in which Young sings the praise of his own personal salvation and wishes similar luck on others. Are You Passionate? isn't all sweetness and light, however: The members of Crazy Horse do drop in for one of their trademark primordial stomps, "Goin' Home," which rails along well past the nine-minute mark. Likewise, the fires are fully stoked for "Let's Roll," a statement of purpose echoing the resolve of a post-9/11 America -- it's a controversial one coming from the longtime dove who wrote "Ohio." But while there's an unmistakable whiff of anger here and there, the air is charged more with the energy of a man who's still -- decades on -- searching for that heart of gold. And gray hairs aside, there's still no sign of growing old. David Sprague

Rolling Stone

1/2 "Young as a soul man? Believe it....Like most of the singer's makeovers -- from the fluorescent computer games of Trans to the grunge touches of Mirror Ball -- Are You Passionate? hums on Young's timeless brand of fossil fuel: love that burns, faith that endures and guitar solos that keep searching for a heart of gold." Greg Kot

Blender

Young sounds fresher here than he has in nearly a decade. Alexis Petridis