A new strategy is emerging in the music industry: no longer do music fans have to wait for albums to actually be released. These days, a strategic ‘leak’ seems to occur, with the music emerging online – illegally, then legally – many weeks prior to release.

Rumour has it that Neil Young’s anti-war album, Living With War, first leaked three days after it had been completed, and approximately a month before it was rush-released into production. That way, the topicality of it remained current – but given America’s involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq, that was always going to be the case no matter what. After Prairie Wind, Neil Young’s ‘Living With My Own Mortality’ album, Living With War is an aggressive slice of rock ‘n roll.

It’s surprising to learn, then, that Living With War does not feature the Crazy Horse cast, but instead an array of musicians. The use of 100 voices – which swell and rise throughout the course of the album – shows a willingness to do something different, and is clearly inspired by Sufjan Stevens. The centrepiece may be “Let’s Impeach the President”, but the thing that most strikes about Living With War is how well it all hangs together.

Certainly, there’s a few tracks that feel more than a little like demos, where ideas aren’t fully expounded upon. But the thing that makes Living With War a perfectly fine album is its passion – “Shock and Awe” combines it with a great song, where “Lookin’ For Leader” is perfectly vitriolic but isn’t as inspiring. Forever time-lined as being from 2006, Living With War is a topical folk-rock record of its times, made by an artist who will forever be remembered as an American legend, despite his Canuck heritage.