Neil Young has always been a sort of chameleon. Every couple of albums, Young seems to take on a new genre. He's played hard rock, folk, grunge, country and even electronic music over the course of his career.

On his newest release, Are You Passionate?, he explores an old soul style with mixed results.

The album finds Young backed by the classic R&B group Booker T. & the MGs on 10 of the 11 songs. They bounce along behind the grizzled godfather of grunge with a very 1960s feel.

The first track, "You're My Girl," has a decidedly Motown feel to it as Young sings to his daughter, a senior in high school. "Please don't tell me that you're leaving me just yet, 'cause I know I gotta let you go," he pleads. The song is one of the few that stands out on the album. Most of the tracks just seem to run together into one hazy, blurry musical mishap. Songs like "Mr. Disappointment," "Quit (Don't Say You Love Me)," "When I Hold You In My Arms," and "She's A Healer" are nearly indistinguishable from each other even after several listens.

The songs are boring and overly long. "She's A Healer" already seems long after only three minutes, but as it grinds to a close at just over nine minutes it's just agonizing.

On Young's earlier albums, when a song was long it hardly seemed it. Songs such as "Cowgirl in the Sand," "Cortez the Killer," and even "Razor Love," from 2000's outstanding acoustic effort Silver & Gold, never dragged.

One true clunker on the album is "Let's Roll," the song inspired by Sept. 11. Young tries to sing about current events again. This time instead of singing about "four dead in Ohio" he's singing about "goin' after Satan on the wings of a dove." It's not 1970 anymore. Young should leave the writing of sappy songs up to country singers.

The one track that features Young's old hard rock backing band Crazy Horse instead of the MGs, "Goin' Home," is one of the few songs that does not lull the listener into boredom. It's the only true rock song on the album and it is a pleasure to hear Crazy Horse rocking out. Though the song suffers from excessive length (nearly nine minutes) it's abundantly clear that Young's relationship with this band is much more fruitful than his endeavor with the MGs.

Another song that can distinguish itself from the majority of muck on Are You Passionate? is "Two Old Friends." Its beautiful lyrics flow over a less soulful and more traditionally singer/songwriter sound. "I'm dreamin' of a time when love and music is everywhere," croons Young, in the song about a preacher going to heaven and asking God to end hate. The song's message of ending hate would make a better anthem for Sept. 11 than "Let's Roll."

If there's one word to sum up this album, it has to be disappointing. After Young's splendid Silver & Gold, this is just a complete and total let-down.

There's nothing wrong with experimenting with different styles. Young has done it successfully before, but let's all hope that this will be his last foray into soul.