Living with War.

LIVING WITH WAR Neil Young (Reprise Records, 2006)

It may not end the Bush presidency, but Neil Young's album Living with War and its most famous song, "Let's Impeach the President," will certainly go down as the pop music event of 2006.

The album was recorded in three days in April and released instantaneously on the Web. Its nine original songs declare the state of the nation in urgent declarative sentences ("America needs a leader") sung to folkish melodies over Young's patented wash of distorted electric guitar and lumbering bass-and-drums thud. The 10th song is a version of "America the Beautiful" sung by a 100-voice gospel choir.

If nothing else, Young has proven that rock 'n' roll can still throw annoying bricks through the windows of American culture. "Let's Impeach the President" says things no one in the political mainstream will say quite so baldly. Its verses call George W out for lying and spying and name his White House staff as a bunch of criminals, but the enduring power of those loud guitars and drums allows Young to cut through the media clutter and be heard.

Living with War also is an astounding testimony to Young's artistic longevity. It's been 40 years since his first band, Buffalo Springfield, hit the charts with another topical anthem, For What It's Worth. You'd have to go to novelist Philip Roth or filmmaker Robert Altman to find an American artist who has remained current over such a long period. One of Young's best acoustic albums, Prairie Wind, and the Jonathan Demme concert movie it inspired (Heart of Gold) were still in active release when he unleashed Living with War. And Young's savvy use of the Internet as an artistic and political vehicle could more befit someone half his age.

On his 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps, Neil Young sang, "It's better to burn out than to fade away." Almost three decades down the line, he shows little sign of doing either.