Neil Young isn’t out to win any popularity contests. Just as he reached the top of the heap three years ago with the huge-selling Harvest, Young divested himself of the look and the sound of superstardom and began to rework his music and image almost from scratch. It wasn’t out of any fear that he turned away from the crowd and its expectations: Young’s projects since Harvest— a film, three albums, and several concert tours—have (whatever their aesthetic worth) been intensely, uncompromisingly personal. So he hasn’t stopped putting himself on the line—on the contrary, his post-Harvest work seems to be part of a continuing quest for some difficult truths.