Melancholic, wistful, and overly sentimental: if these sound like descriptors interchangeable with at least four other Neil Young albums, fair enough. But Silver & Gold, Neil’s first album of the new millennium, is his finest collection of such songs since Harvest Moon. Neil has written nostalgic tunes before, like Harvest Moon’s “One Of These Days” and Ragged Glory’s “Days That Used To Be,” songs full of loose-end tying, let-bygones-be-bygones lyrics that left one wondering if Neil was twelve-stepping, dying, or both. On Silver & Gold, these earthbound acknowledgements of mortality constitute a theme, and Neil has rarely written so fluently of friendships, family, and the passage of time. The romantic title track, which dates back to at least 1985, is a clear highlight, as is the deeply penetrating “Razor Love,” but the lean Silver and Gold is truly without a weak track. The musical accompaniment is appropriately easy-breezy, from the mellow gait of the rhythm section, which comprises the legendary Jim Keltner and Donald “Duck’ Dunn, to Ben Keith’s swooping pedal steel and Spooner Oldham’s exquisitely minimal electric piano. If it all sounds a bit stodgy, give it another chance; Silver & Gold is one of Neil’s most beautiful and consistently rewarding albums.