The prospect of an unreleased Neil Young album from 2001 might not quicken the heart as, say, the 2020 release of Homegrown, his long-lost set from 1974/5. But this is a vault item of note. Toast was nixed in favour of 2002’s Are You Passionate?, recorded with Booker T & the MGs. By contrast, Toast was “so sad that I couldn’t put it out”, according to Young. Cuts such as Gateway of Love surfaced live, adding to the clamour for the album’s release.
Toast is a markedly different offering than its loved-up substitute. The MGs swung; Crazy Horse meander powerfully. The heavy riff on Standing in the Light of Love is just a few notes off Deep Purple’s Smoke on the Water. Even though the two albums share tracks in common (Quit and Goin’ Home; Toast’s Boom Boom Boom resurfaced on Are You Passionate? as She’s a Healer), the emotions on these twin outings are largely inverted.
On … Passionate, Young used feelgood soul to pledge his troth. On Toast, he and Crazy Horse brood noisily on a relationship going south. Although the plight of a troubled logger on the rollicking Timberline flags up Young’s deep-held environmental concerns, the song is really about a loss of faith. Starring his plangent guitar, How Ya Doin’ provides a gentler, more rueful take on all this romantic misery.
