Solo Albums
Neil Young
Neil's first solo album and in my opinion a real must-have. Nietsche's arrangements are amazing, the songs splendid... It has a style that, unfortunately, he will never come back to. Without hesitation one of his best albums.
Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
The first album with Crazy Horse and a very solid one! It contains 3 of his great classics supposedly all composed in one single day! Cinnamon Girl, Down by the River and Cowgirl in the Sand.
After the Goldrush
Great classic. It contains one of his most beautiful songs (the title song) and is very equal beginning to end. Without any flaws!
Harvest
With the risk to repeat myself, another must-have. Definitely, the best Neil Young's periods were early 70s and 90s. This album is also his most popular (the only one to have reached the first place in the charts!) An excellent album!
Journey Through The Past
The soundtrack of a film directed by Neil Young. A somewhat useless album except for Soldier (the only otherwise unreleased song) which is quite simply sublime! Otherwise, a very unequal album which I very seldom listen to.
Time Fades Away
An entirely live album. Some very beautiful songs for the majority very melancholic ones. The artist enters his dark period... After the unexpected popularity (and what comes with it) of Harvest and the death of Danny Whitten and Bruce Berry, he wrote three very dark and heavy albums. Often these albums (TFA, OTB and TTN) appear among fan favourites. It's not really my case. The albums are powerful certainly but...
On The Beach
The great Neil Young classic according to the majority of the fans... Well. I am far from being a fan of his dark period. I prefer him when he's angry rather than sad. The only tune I like on this album is the one which the majority fast forwards through (See the Sky About To Rain). Otherwise, I find the remainder very repetitive and... yes... boring. Definitely, the weakest album of the three.
Tonight's the night
His last dark album. Phew. Better than OTB and TFA. I like its voluntarily raw and unfinished side and songs like Tired Eyes and World One A String make it a profitable purchase. Let's Go Downtown is completely out of context here (except as an homage to Danny Whitten) but one forgives because it's so splendidly simple. The title song could in my humble opinion be omitted... Not once but twice.
Zuma
A return towards a more electric style and his fetish band Crazy Horse. Very listenable, very equal but without particular merit.
Long May You Run
A "nice" album supposed to be a return towards the Buffalo Springfield spirit. For that matter it's a miss! The Stills tune Make Love To You is excellent but besides that... Frankly uninteresting. If you're unable to find it don't try so hard...
American Stars and Bars
Extremely unequal, American Stars and Bars is some sort of a mix of several tunes which didn't make it to other albums or were supposed to appear on albums which never came out (Homegrown and Chrome Dreams to believe the sources). Only true points of interest: Like A Hurricane and Will to Love.
Comes A Time
A totally country album! Most of the songs on it (especially Motorcycle Mama) were often performed live in much better versions.
Rust Never Sleeps
This album and the next one come from the same tour. They're the last Neil albums from the 70's and also his last pure folk/rock albums.With the 80's lots of changes are comming. A very equal album and a real subject of cult among fans. I can't help it but feel that he's in need of some changes though.
Live Rust
Where were we? Oh yes, the end of the 70s. These 2 albums are solid but do not count among my favourites. His late 70s rock era is in my opinion his lest interesting. What's coming is much better but I know most wouldn't agree with me.
Hawks And Doves
Once more, Neil makes some kind of a Country/Rock Patchwork (like American Stars and Bars). Once you get used to it it's very enjoyable. Without any pretension whatsoever, just some simple country/rock tunes.
Reactor
Now that's rock'n roll! IMO, by far the best of the ex-Missing 6. Pure Adrenaline! T-Bone and Shots are works of true genious! An album as excellent as indescribable. Since it's FINALLY on CD nobody has any excuse anymore! A real must!
Trans
Concerning this album, I completely agree with Neil, it's one of his best! In less than a year he switched from Hard Rock to... well yeah... techno, dance, trance you name it. This album is a masterpiece! Thank you Mr. Geffen! Without even knowing it you released a true gem!
Everybody's Rockin
Well, now I don't agree with Neil anymore. This album isn't one of his best. It's fun to listen to, but not one of his best. The tunes all sound the same... well yeah it's Rockabilly but still... An album you can listen to once a year, not more.
Old Ways
Another genre shift, this time another country album and a REAL one! Harvest and Comes A Time were pseudo country, but this one is for real! Yeah, if you didn't get it yet, Neil is in his Cha, Cha, Cha, Changes period. A nice album even if you're not a fan of the genre but it gets annoying pretty quickly. Thank god we didn't get Old Ways II, 'cause he's got enough material to make 10 more of them!
Landing On Water
I may be the only one, but I like that album very much! Maybe it's because I was born when the synths were emerging and so I may be immune to them. Well at least he knows how to use them.
Life
An average album even if it contains some of Neil's obscure classics like Prisoners of Rock'n Roll and Mideast Vacation. We can see, Crazy Horse wasn't what Neil was into at that period, 'cause the chemistry is very weak. Still, if we manage to get through the bad sound we can see that there's some real serious potential behind it.
This Note's For You
The comeback to Reprise. Young sucked all the patience he could from Geffen and after shaking off his frustrations he's ready to do some rock'n roll. But before that let's do one more weird album. This is Neil's last trip to alien territories and this time it's blues.
Eldorado
For the geeks only! Five tunes among which 3 will appear on Freedom and the 2 others, two extremely weak and insipid Rock tunes (I can never tell one from the other). Once more, I'll say the contrary of most of the fans, but this album is completely uninteresting. Oh, I forgot... it's out of print... that's why I suppose...
Freedom
Finally, some real rock'n roll! Don't Cry is IMO one of his best tunes and I could spend hours talking about its virtues. The way he sings "out off tune" at the end of each line is marvelous, the distortions are orgasmic... Eldorado is a little chef d'oeuvre also.
Ragged Glory
Finally a real Crazy Horse album! And one of the best also! Farmer John is excellent (even if he's not the composer) and Fuckin' Up doesn't stand far behind. A solid and very enjoyable album.
A great live album! Without any doubt, the heaviest of his career. The main spot : his cover of Dylan's Blowing In The Wind. It's one of the most intense songs I ever heard!
Euh... No comments.
A kind of come back towards the classic Harvest album to which it cannot in any way be compared. It is a good album but completely different from the 1971 classic. The musicians are the same but it lacks a hell of a lot of spontaneity and innocence.
Neil Young records an album with MTV... I'll never stop laughing that one. Surprisingly enough it is really great! Of all his albums it is the one that documents the best his folk side. The Like A Hurricane version on it is a must!
After a few years of wandering here and there Neil is ready to affront Crazy Horse again. God thing 'cause it is the best Crazy Horse album to date! The most profound, the most unpredictable, the most complex...
This album was indeed recorded with Pearl Jam but their names had to be withdrawn because of contractual troubles... No comments. Some pure rock'n roll, very entertaining, constant, energizing... It's also one of his most spontaneous and simple albums. Without any pretention whatsoever.
Soundtrack for Jim Jarmusch's film. Rarely have I seen soundtrack that takes so much space in the movie! According to the legend, Neil just sat watching the movie and played along. That's it that's all.
Among all the Crazy Horse albums, this one is I think the most relaxed. This Town for example is even gentler than most of his solo works. Not much to say about this album except that it's really great!
THE Neil Young live album! A masterpiece unequaled to this day. Everybody should listen to it before releasing a live album! Every tune on it is completely different than any version we may have heard on any album. It also contains one of my favorite Neil tunes : Danger Bird.
Hmmm... I never know what to say about this album. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I find it boring to death! It's by far his most introspective and gentle album to date... thus the toughest to criticize.
Guess that nobody really knows what the V1 means. Is there gonna be a V2? Anyways, another live album, the main point of interest of which is Words in its best version ever recorded.
Ah! What a pleasure it was to put this album in my car CD player just after buying it on the day of its release and hear him start She's My Girl, a splendid tune... so frank and simple... A very refreshing album! I tend to compare it to Freedom for the general mood (a little bit soulful though, thanks to Booker T & The MGs). The title song is also one of the most delightful songs he has ever written.
One of the biggest controversies of his career. Some think it's his best ever, some think it's his worse piece of crap. I must admit I belong to to the second group. All the tunes sound alike and some of them I wouldn't even call songs (Bringin' Down Dinner for example). The stage show was impressive and so was the movie but the album is so weak that it hurts! What's even worse is the production. Well, on second thought, the production can't be bad... there isn't any! Only Be The Rain is listenable and maybe Bandit. If you can get any of the live shows, don't hesitate. The electric or acoustic versions are both sublime compared to this piece of %#&(%!
A slight return to form after the Greendale catastrophe. This is supposed to be a follow up to Harvest and Harvest Moon but it doesn't match any of the two in quality. The first 2 songs are great but then it goes slightly downhill and only Prairie Wind and He was the King are really enjoyable. The Heart Of Gold Movie which showcases almost all of the tracks from this album is really worth the watch though. The spirit is really there!
This album has its moments but suffers from the same handicaps Greendale did. Neil put too much effort in the concept and not enough in the music itself. The lyrics IMHO are ridiculously naive and the music is just too spontaneous. It kinda reminds Mirror Ball but it's far from that album's catchyness. After the Garden and Restless Consumer are pretty good tunes but there are too many that are just fillers (Families and Roger & Out especially). America the beautiful is totally unnecessary and I doubt anyone who listens to this album doesn't skip this tune. Impeach the President is kinda cool but the lyrics and the music are far from Ohio and Alabama.
Incredible, isn't it? Finally the first in the Archives series is released. Let's just hope it's not the last! The quality of this show is indescribable. The chemistry between Neil and Danny and the rest of the band is just magical! The songs are incredibly powerful! Really, I'd have to look really hard to find a glitch in this album. Oh yes... there is just one teeny tiny one. Why the hell did he cut Cinamon Girl???? There was obviously enough space on the disc, so why????
Just when I thought that Greendale was Neil's worst album ever and that he would never compromise himself in such a way again. Oh how wrong I was! This is probably The worst and The most useless release in Rock history. Basically, Neil took the original album, edited out the choir and BANG! There goes another release. What it does is make an extremely weak album incredibly worse. The stripped down version painfully exposes Neil's weakening voice, the atrocious quality of songwriting and the stupidity of the lyrics. It's really 9 times the same non-song with dull chord progressions and mechanical drums. Neil... please, just stick to the archives...
The second in the Archives Series and as hard as it is, even better than the first one. This time they even included live footage for some of the songs!!! This is by far the best acoustic live album by Neil so far. The songs are all incredibly beautiful and Neil has never been in such amazing form. This album is an essential not only for Neil Young fans but for everyone even vaguely interested in his music.
The first Neil LP record! His contribution is quite hard to notice as a performer but as a composer it is all over. A very nice album overal.
A little bit too much IMO. Mr. Soul never was among my favorites, the production of Broken Arrow and Expecting to Fly is waaaay over the top, the solos on Bluebird are way too much also... They had potential, no doubt about it, but they should've taken it easier. It sounds like a rooster fight between Neil and Steve which by the way isn't too far from what it really was.
Cute, but not too good. Neil's contribution is close to inexistant (except for the great I Am A Child). You can feel how much the band was divided at the time and that Neil wasn't even there.
Albums with Crosby Stills & Nash
The first, and for quite a long time the last, album of the american fab four. Obviously, four artists of such a stature can't coexist in peace and harmony. What a shame though... Almost all the songs are instant classics : Country Girl, 4+20 (my favorites), Teach Your Children Well, Helpless, Carry On, to quote only the best.
A great summary of the CSNY 74 tour. They couldn't stand each other for more than 5 minutes in the studio so... hell yeah! a live album! Very criticized by many for the supposedly bad vocals etc. but personally I love it. If only they could cut a little bit on the pretentious comments and stupid jokes by Nash and Crosby...
Forgive me lord what what I'm about to say : This album is mediocre! I tried, really tried... but every time I listen to it and decide to give it another chance or to find some very well hidden virtues, I hate it even more!
Now, that's better! I don't get it though. How can they release such utter crap like American Dream and then 10 years later such a fantastic album! All of the Neil songs were originally written for Silver & Gold but then Neil gave them to the CSNY project. Quite a generous gift as a matter of fact, because no tune on Silver & Gold is as good as Out Of Control for example!
The only compilation worth having. I hate compilations by the way! You want a starting point to Neil's music? Get yourself Unplugged for his solo work and Year Of The Horse for Crazy Horse. At least this one has the merit of containing 5 unreleased songs.
Out of print and not without reason... A Neil Young greatest hits in 45 minutes???
The compilation, released by Geffen a few years after Neil's Fuck You. How do you wanna make a compilation of the Geffen era? Mix techno, country, rockabilly, hard rock and pop... A real schizo-trip! As well as Decade it contains 2 unreleased songs.
Same as Lucky 13. A little bit more listenable but uninteresting. The Geffen years tunes, taken out of their context make very little sense.
Admittedly, a compilation based on sales and radio airplay. Meaning, you won't find no T-Bone here. Worth having only for the remasters.
A compilation of Buffalo Springfield material..
Same as above only more thorough.
A box set full of lost gems of all sorts plus the two first albums (why Neil, why?).
A compilation of CSNY work with two Neil Young songs. For a more complete collection, the box set is a must.
