Despite Pono's lack of marketplace traction, the success of To Feel the Music is in the passion Young brings to his mission to save audio. His reasons are just. His dedication bleeds from the page. And you get the feeling, despite any setbacks, he will not stop until we're all listening to music again the way it was supposed to be heard.
Neil Young is a musical colossus ... But he writes weird books, and this is another one. Deliriously boring in parts ... To Feel the Music is quite devoid of revelations and rockin’ anecdotes ... It’s sort of a business book, or a tech book. And yet it doesn’t really fit into those sections either—too woolly, too gonzo. An entirely new genre perhaps: the rock-star business-tech memoir by two authors ... But there’s a heart in there somewhere—a big, shaggy, contrarian Neil Young heart, thumping away. We should pay attention. At his website, neilyoungarchives.com, he’s streaming high-res audio right now. Check it out. Compare and contrast. Don’t leave him to bang his head on his own gravestone.
Young remains a crusader for high-quality audio, and he tells a fascinating tale, albeit with much technical and business narrative detail, which will appeal mostly to tech, business, and music buffs interested in the future of how we consume, preserve, and listen to recorded music.
His many fans may be surprised to learn that, despite decades of songwriting and performing success, Young considers his campaign to preserve audio quality the most important thing he’s ever done. A feast for audio geeks, but also anyone who cares about the quality of recorded music.
There’s a great story in here about Pono and the debate over sound quality standards in the music industry, but the authors are too close to the subject to bring it out. The narrative gets too far into the weeds for the casual reader, but tech junkies will find lots to enjoy.
