Rather than pump out new albums, Neil Young’s spent much of his time lately churning out hidden gems from his back catalog. The latest news from Young’s camp is that he’s dusted off an album called Toast (which has nothing to do with grilled bread – it’s the name of the studio they recorded it at) that he and his band Crazy Horse recorded  back in 2000.

I read earlier in the year that Young was planning to release an album of unreleased material, but I think that was related to his Chrome Dreams II project. Toast is completely different – seemingly a collection of songs that the band struggled to put together. Well, the site says they worked “for months and came up with very little”.

The style of the album is said to be blues and jazz infused with a few harder rock tracks thrown in for good measure.

John Hanlon, the original co-producer with Neil, is at work mixing all of the Toast material. Many songs share a bluesy, jazz-tinged vibe as a common thread. Three solid rockers are interspersed in the mix. Other songs are long with extensive explorations between verses, a Crazy Horse trademark, kind of like a down-played Tonight’s the Night, except these songs deal directly with love and loss, not drugs.

While I wouldn’t describe myself as a die-hard fan of Neil Young, I have enjoyed some of his earlier albums like Harvest. I’m sure this’ll be good news for fans of Crazy Horse.

By the way, if you’ve got any suggestions for anyone looking to get started with Neil Young & Crazy Horse, drop them in the comments below. I might just go shopping…