NEIL WATCH: One upcoming album elicited a...

NEIL WATCH: One upcoming album elicited a surprising wait-and-see attitude from retailers and programmers: The collaboration by Neil Young and Pearl Jam.

“There will be plenty of Neil Young and Pearl Jam fans who will want to own a copy,” says KROQ’s Weatherly. “But as far as a huge commercial success, it depends on what the record sounds like.”

While we all wait to find out, though, Reprise Records is launching a new campaign to make Young a hit in the alternative-rock world. All that “godfather of grunge” praise from such alternative stars as Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth has yet to translate into record sales or radio airplay, even for last year’s “Sleeps With Angels,” which included songs inspired by Kurt Cobain.

Says Weatherly, “Any way that we measure, our audience says they like Neil. But they just don’t want to hear him on KROQ. It’s one of those strange things.”

But now Reprise has sent radio stations a promotional CD with the album’s title song, plus a new live acoustic version recorded at last October’s Bridge School benefit concert. And in April, the company will release a home video, “The Complex Sessions,” featuring entirely different recordings of some “Sleeps With Angels” songs, filmed in the studio by director Jonathan Demme.