Hawks & Doves

Coming after 1979\'s masterful *Rust Never Sleeps*, 1980\'s *Hawks and Doves* is a difficult album to gauge. Like *Rust*, the album is divided into acoustic and electric sides, but it doesn’t have an anthem like \"My, My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue)\" to center it. \"Little Wing\" is short and tender, while the sadly overlooked \"Captain Kennedy\" resonates with a desperate soldier\'s dream to reclaim his family\'s honor. \"Union Man,\" \"Comin\' Apart at Every Nail,\" and the excellent title track are loose, countrified working-class anthems that allow Young to embody both a heartland union worker and lackadaisical southern California hippie.

Following the triumph of Rust Never Sleeps, Hawks & Doves benefited from the enormous critical goodwill Neil Young had amassed, though fans and critics nevertheless were baffled by its set of obscure acoustic and country-tinged songs.