AnyBlogDotCom: Neil Young (also Buffalo Springfield and CSN&Y) album by album

See Neil Young album by album.

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I seriously admire Neil Young. I saw him live in 2008 at the Hammersmith Odeon, and it was one of the most sublime experiences of my life. He is a superb talent who has the power to make the sum of what he does so much greater than the individual parts. There is a resonance, depth, and significance to his work that is somewhat moving and disturbing.

He is not an innovator as such, though his electric guitar work can be original and creative at times. But mostly he is working within a somewhat folk based singer-songwriter tradition. His stance and attitude is fiercely individualistic, somewhat rebellious, art based, conservative, yet embracing change. He is a puzzle. He is not a rock star, he is an artist. That is how he would see himself, and that is how most of his fans would see him.

He has been around a long time - he first came to notice in Buffalo Springfield (where he wrote "Mr Soul", a complex song that still intrigues people, and which he still plays live), though he had started his career slightly earlier than that when he formed The Squires in 1966, recording a few tracks, then in 1966 he hitch-hiked down from Canada to sign to the Motown record label with the band The Mynah Birds. They only recorded a handful of tracks, one of which was "It's My Time". After Buffalo Springfield broke up he started his solo career, though also occasionally working with the supergroup Crosby Still & Nash (when they would be termed Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young). On his solo albums he sometimes works with the band Crazy Horse in much the way that Bob Dylan worked with The Band.

I think that one of the reasons for Young's respected status is that he takes himself seriously - he has that authenticity that some people (like myself) value highly, and which is sadly quite rare among rock musicians. Artists who have it include Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Bob Dylan, and Led Zeppelin, who consequently are highly respected and commercially successful even when working in niche musical areas.

Buffalo Springfield albums

Buffalo Springfield (1966)

"For What It's Worth", a Steven Stills song, is stunning. The rest of the album doesn't match that quality, but is listenable. Around half the songs were written by Stills and half by Young. Young doesn't really stand out.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 8
BestEverAlbums: 1799th
Score: 3 1/2

Buffalo Springfield Again (1967)

Only three of the songs were by Young, but they are three bloody good ones: "Mr Soul", "Expecting To Fly", and "Broken Arrow". This is a much stronger album than the debut, and really shows the emergence of a major talent.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
BEA: 1259th
Score: 4 1/2

Last Time Around (1968)

Pleasant and assured, but quite unremarkable. The band were breaking up, and there seemed to be little energy or enthusiasm to make a good album. Minimal contribution from Young, and not much more from Stills - the slack being taken up by the other members of the band. This is an inoffensive middle of the road pop focused folk-pop album, sometimes sounding a bit like something from Burt Bacharach, but that's OK. Overall a more confident and professional album than the debut, but without the charm, and without "For What It's Worth". The middle album, Buffalo Springfield Again, is the main album by this band, and the main focus of interest for those looking into Neil Young,

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 6
Score: 3 1/2

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young albums

Déjà Vu (1970)

I adore this album. If you've never heard it, get it now.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
BestEverAlbums: 280th
Score: 10

4 Way Street (1971)

Live album. I've dipped into this now and again over the years, and it's never really appealed to me. The tour was notorious for the tensions and arguments in the band. All four members are talented, and there is something very special when they are together. But the real artist, the significant figure that lifts them out of the pleasant, everyday, is Neil Young. The other three could write pleasant hippy songs and harmonious beautifully, but Young brought an edge, an attitude, and an authenticity that lifted Deja Vu into a work of art. It wasn't just him, but he really lifted it to perfection. This album, by contrast, is more CS&N than CSN&Y, and it fails because of that. It's OK, and it sold because the band were really famous, and those that bought it still love it as a record of the time, but it's actually mostly quite boring. It doesn't help that the recording is poor, sounding like a bootleg. Mostly the four of them give solo performances, leaning heavily on their own solo material, so this isn't CSN&Y at all. But Stills and Young play together now and again, providing the best bits. This is a seriously over-rated album - the cuts of Stills & Young heroically working their way through "Southern Man" and "Carry On" together, are not that great to make up for having to wade through the dire solo efforts of Crosby and Nash. On the whole this is an album best avoided, except out of sheer curiosity.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
Score: 2 1/2

American Dream (1988)

An Eighties album. The band sound like a middle of the road rock band. Sometimes they sound like a synth-pop band. Sometimes they sound like The Police. It's messy and inconsequential, but not horrid. OK background music.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 4
Score: 2 1/2

Looking Forward (1999)

A number of long standing major artists produced awful albums in the Eighties, but had a resurgence in the spirit of the Nineties. CSN&Y weren't one of them. This is an indifferent album that would be completely ignored if it were by anyone other than the artists involved, and even then it was largely ignored. To be fair, the band are working together on this, rather than the solo effects they had contributed to 4 Way Street, and the songs (on the whole) return to their strengths rather than attempt to keep up with current musical fashion as on American Dream, so it is stronger and more pleasant than those two albums. I considered this as non-essential at first, but the more I listen, the more I am warming to it..

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 5
Score: 4 1/2

Déjà Vu Live (2008)

This is Neil Young's tour for his album Living With War, on which he invited CS&N to join him, during which they played their own war related songs from their past, including two tracks from Deja Vu ("Deja Vu" and "Teach Your Children". The title, as such, appears to be misleading, yet as the album unfolds the intention becomes clear. CSN&Y (as a group and as individual members) were protesting about war in the Sixties and Seventies, and they are doing so now - deja vu indeed! This is a coherent and compelling album, the best thing the collective have done since Deja Vu, and more interesting and important and more CSN&Y than 4 Way Street.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 6
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Solo albums

Neil Young (1969)

Released after Buffalo Springfield broke up, this is his first solo album. It's a pleasant and interesting album, and it shows his potential, but he's not quite there yet.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 7
BestEverAlbums: 3585th
Score: 4

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)

A rocky country rock album. This is the first with Young's electric backing band Crazy Horse. A bright, confident, and assured album. Tracks like "Down By The River" are at the heart of Young's electric/rock music, with blistering guitar work, and an authentic and original approach to rock music and electric guitar that would prove to be hugely inspirational for succeeding generations. Breath-taking. This is no longer pop, this is art. Not experimental, but done and delivered.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
BEA: 232rd
Score: 9

After The Goldrush (1970)

This is one of the high achievements of mankind. A work of staggering beauty and high art. Totally unique, with an emotional depth that exceeds the words and music. Something wonderfully magic happens on this album that is hard to define or explain. The title track is quite possibly the greatest song ever written.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
BEA: 83rd
Score: 10

Harvest (1972)

A widely acknowledged classic. My preference is for After The Goldrush, but this comes a close second, and I understand why it would be many people's favourite. Some great songs, and a good vibe on the whole album.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
BestEverAlbums: 103rd
Score: 9 1/2

Journey Through The Past (1972)

Soundtrack to an (apparently unsuccessful) experimental film made by Young. The soundtrack is a collection of recordings made throughout Young's career up to the date of the film. The bulk of the material itself would be known to the audience, though the recordings themselves are unique, being alternative recordings or live performances of Buffalo Springfield, CSN&Y and Young. Individually, some of the tracks are interesting or worthwhile - a funky live version of Southern Man, and a typically disturbing Neil Young original "Soldier", which would later be included on Decade. but the whole is rather messy.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 4
Score: 4

Time Fades Away (1973)

Live album of new material recorded on the Harvest tour when audiences were expecting songs they were familiar with. Apparently Young was mostly drunk and bad tempered on tour, and was disliked by band (The Stray Gators) and audience alike. I like this.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 8
Score: 7

On The Beach (1974)

This is rather loose, sparse, and difficult to like at first. It's the title track "On The Beach" that offers a way in. Highly regarded by many, I've still not quite got it.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
BestEver: 230th
Score: 5

Tonight's The Night (1975)

Loose, rough, ragged. Some see this as Young grieving and despairing because of friends dying and his dissatisfaction with the superficiality of the stardom he had achieved. The album was recorded before On The Beach but withdrawn from release either by Young or by his record company (stories vary). I kinda like it more than On The Beach.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
BestEverAlbums: 437th
Score: 6

Zuma (1975)

When I bought this album in 1975 I was unsure of it, and I still am.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
BEA: 1090th
Score: 5

Long May You Run (1976)

With Stephen Stills.

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American Stars 'n Bars (1977)

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Decade (1977)

A compilation set chosen by Young. Very useful if overlong.

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Score: 6 1/2

Comes A Time (1978)

A return to the gentle and reflective acoustic country folk style of Harvest. Very warm, attractive and comforting. Very likeable, yet also quite forgettable. Nothing quite takes off. And nothing quite stays in the mind or soul. This feels kinda superficial. It's nice. But it melts in the Sun. Don't get too close.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
BEA: 2206th
Score: 5

Rust Never Sleeps (1979)

A great album. It came out when the punk attitude had settled down into being mainstream, and Young showed he was fully on board with that, yet also still able to operate in a folky vibe as well. All new material, yet recorded live (with studio overdubs). One side acoustic, the other side electric, this is both sides of a supremely talented and unique individual.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 10
BEA: 363rd
Score: 9

Live Rust (Nov 1979)

This is a typical Neil Young oddity. Rust Never Sleeps was a live album. He toured to promote the album. This is the album of that tour, and contains four live songs from the live album, which sound pretty much the same. The rest of the album is a compilation of live versions of songs which had been compiled on Decade fairly recently. So there is a feeling of duplication. We're a few years down the road now, so that feeling of redundancy is not so acute, but there is still the sense that this album is not doing anything which hasn't already been done, so it still feels a bit redundant.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
BEA: 1227th
Score: 4

Hawks & Doves (1980)

This is an odd one. Oh, look it's the Eighties. I don't think any established artist produced a worthwhile album during the Eighties. An odd time. Anyway, this is a flippant and trivial album. It doesn't really sound like Young at all most of the time.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 6
BEA: 5864th
Score: 3

Re-ac-tor (1981)

A rocky album with no depth. The general explanation for the poor quality of Young's early Eighties albums is that he was distracted by the complications of his son's cerebral palsy. "Shots" is the one decent track.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 4
Score: 3

Trans (1982)

Here we go with the Eighties synth. What an awful decade for music. Give it a miss.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 4
Score: 2

Everybody's Rockin' (1983)

Mediocre and superficial rockabilly - some covers, some original Young material. All of it bad. The most superficial album he's made. Some commentators say this album was a deliberate fuck off to Geffen who asked Young to make a rock and roll record. But I'm not seeing that. It looks like he's taking the job seriously, and delivering what he feels to be a record with the same sound, feel, and production values of the early Elvis years, and there's a lot of affection and respect in the material and recording. Young has said a number of positive things about the album. There's no suggestion either in the album itself, or anything that he has said about it, that this was a piss take. Indeed, that seems rather insulting to Young, the people involved, and the period that Young was homaging. Young is as capable of making a duff record as anyone else, and to suggest that Young's duff records are because Young deliberately made them duff, indicates to me that perhaps people are thinking that Young is somehow an infallible god.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 4
Score: 2

Old Ways (1985)

A country album. And a poor one. It sounds like a joke. Is it?

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 6
Score: 2

Landing On Water (1986)

Few established musicians made great albums during the Eighties. Most followed the trend for drums up front, big production, and plenty of synths. But these things were a passing fad, they weren't good at the time, and sound especially empty and superficial today. This is Young's typical Eighties album, carrying all the Eighties flaws. Does he and his songs survive it? Looking at a range of reviews, the general consensus is that he doesn't emerge well, but there are some who feel the album has been unfairly criticised.

Wikipedia
Rolling Stone 1986 review
AllMusic: 4
Score: 2 1/2

Life (1987)

Young's best Eighties album. But it's poor. Upfront simplistic thumping drums, typical of the Eighties style, clash with an attempt to recapture some of the mood and attitude of Rust Never Sleeps.

Wikipedia

AllMusic: 6
Score: 3 1/2

This Note's for You (1988)

The Eighties seemed to be a period when Young played around with different music styles, and never got close to being an artist. All the music he produced during the Eighties is slight and superficial. This is modestly likeable because brassy R&B is likeable, but it's throwaway stuff. Listen out of curiosity only.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 6
Score: 2 1/2

Freedom (1989)

The decade is over and Young returns to form. "Rockin' in The Free World" restored his reputation, just as the glorious Nineties was about to open up.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
BEA: 1942th
Score: 5

Ragged Glory (1990)

Neil "The Godfather of Grunge" Young returns to splendid form just as grunge emerges for real. This is a blistering album, with smoke and sparks coming out of Young's slow grungy guitar. It may not have the ideas, originality, art and depth of his Seventies albums, but it's close.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
BEA: 1365th
Score: 6 1/2

Weld (1991)

Another live summary of his work, with an emphasis on recent albums. It's good stuff. Is it essential? No, but it's a useful summary of his rock and electric guitar work at the start of the Nineties.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 9
Score: 5

Arc (1991)

A sound collage of various noises made during concerts - mostly feedback and the beginnings and endings of songs. Such sound collages are an interesting idea, but rarely work. The Faust Tapes is a notable example of a collage that REALLY works, but Arc is an example of one that doesn't. There's nothing to hold it together, and there's little actually musical control over the resulting sound, so it remains just that - sound. If it was an original idea, then we can give Young some credit, but it's not. So this is one on which to pass as it fails on every level. .

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 4
Score: 1

Harvest Moon (1992)

A return to the sound and feel of his early Seventies acoustic period. Pleasant, and with some really good songs such as "Harvest Moon", but overall doesn't have the perfect touch and emotional resonance of his best acoustic albums.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 7
BEA: 1152nd
Score: 5 1/2

Unplugged (1993)

An uneven and mostly mediocre live performance. Apparently this was the second attempt. Listenable, and occasionally quite touching, but not an essential album.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 6
Score: 4 1/2

Sleeps With Angels (1994)

A brooding and emotionally intense album with some great songs. This is up there with his best, and on a par with Tonight's The Night and Time Fades Away. Give this one some respect. It deserves and repays close attention.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 7
BEA: 3013th
Score: 7

Mirror Ball (1995)

A collaboration with Pearl Jam. It's OK.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 6
Score: 4

Broken Arrow (1996)

There's a Zuma feel about this. I like this. I find this more accessible than Zuma.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 5
Score: 7

Year Of The Horse (1997)

Another live album of old material. Hmmmm. I like it. Worth comparing with Weld.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 5
Score: 5

Silver & Gold (2000)

A very attractive Harvest type album. Nothing wrong with this, except that Young has done this sort of thing before, and better, so there's a sense of treading water to the point of almost being boring, but the warmth of the songs and the performance compensates for that. Decent stuff. A lot of long term major artists were looking back in the Naughties, so this was quite in keeping with Young's overall musical journey - he was generally pretty much doing what everyone else was doing, even if at times it seemed he was doing what wasn't expected in reality he was. And as was typical in the work of other longstanding major artists in the Naughties and Naughteens, there's an air of nostalgia about this album, which is quite affecting.

Wikipedia
AllMusic: 6
Score: 5 1/2

Road Rock Vol 1 (2000)

A live electric album. There's no doubt Young is a major talent, and is fascinating for his command of both touching acoustic material and blistering grungy electric material, and sometimes the combination of both, but there's a certain frustration that he wasn't able to successfully explore or develop beyond his comfort zone. The attempts he made in the Eighties to go beyond "Neil Young" were not successful, and he no doubt felt a little uncertain of trying it again because it seems he never did. The legend is that Young is a supremely confident maverick who does what he likes, but the reality is that he ploughed a very narrow field throughout his career. Haviong said that, this is a bloody good album. There's nothing here that Young has not done before, but he does it well. Indeed, at this stage in his career, he does it very well. The opener, an extended, fluid, blistering, beautiful "Cowgirl In The Sand" is pretty breathtaking. I'm OK with this album.

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Score: 5 1/2

Are You Passionate? (2002)

Generally regarded as Young's worse album (UCR, RS, AM) this is mainly tired old soul pastiche songs backed by some members of the MG's (but not Steve Cropper) plus a couple of dull songs backed by Crazy Horse. I quite like the soul songs, and though they are a little old and clichéd, there's a warmth and a swing to them that works for me. On the whole, though, when Young wanders away from his core styles, he tends to come across as rather thin and middling. It's a pleasant, but very modest album.

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AllMusic: 4
Score: 4

Greendale (2003)

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AllMusic: 7
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Greendale Live at Vicar Street

Prairie Wind (2005)

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AllMusic: 7
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Earth (2016)

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Living With War (2006)

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Living With War - in The Beginning (Dec 2006)

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Live At The Fillmore East (Nov 2006)

Recorded during Young's 1970 tour with Crazy Horse.

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AllMusic: 9
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Live At Massey Hall 1971

Released as part of Young's Archives series, which, similar to Dylan's Bootleg series, aims to release various previously officially unreleased live recordings. Young then expanded the series to include all his recorded material, available to download or stream for subscribers to his Archives website.

This is a beautiful album, capturing Young at his acoustic peak. Essential.

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AllMusic: 9
Score: 9

Chrome Dreams II (2007)

Chrome Dreams I is an unreleased album from 1977.

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Fork In The Road (2009)

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Dreamin' Man Live '92

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Le Noise (2010)

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Americana (2012)

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Psychedelic Pill (2012)

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Live At The Cellar Door

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A Letter Home (2014)

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Storytone (2014)

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The Monsanto Years (2016)

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Bluenote Cafe

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Earth

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Peace Trail (2016)

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Hitchhiker

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The Visitor

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Paradox

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ROXY: Tonight's The Night Live

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Songs For Judy

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Songs Through The Ages