Neil Young Goods on JamBase

Neil Young

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Chrome Dreams II: Available at: Amazon

Goin' Home: A Tribute to Fats Domino: Available at: Amazon

Live at Massey Hall (CD/DVD): Available at: Amazon

Live at Massey Hall (CD/DVD): Available at: Amazon

Live at Massey Hall (CD/DVD): Available at: Amazon

Stars N Bars: Available at: Amazon

Re-ac-tor: Available at: Amazon

Greendale: Neil's latest!; Available at: Amazon

On The Beach: Available at: Amazon

Hawks & Doves: Available at: Amazon

Old Ways: Available at: Amazon

This Note's For You: This Note's For You is one of Neil Young's best albums even if it didn't sell. This is great rhythm and blues with an outstanding horn section. The title track is the best known track and it's Neil at his best as he attacks corporate sponsorship while the horn section responds after each line.; Available at: Amazon

Sleeps With Angels: If Neil Young has a pronounced weakness, it's a lack of focus. Restless to a fault, he's apt to rush into the recording studio without fully forming his ideas. Sleeps with Angels is that kind of album--and yet it's one of his best.; Available at: Amazon

Arc: Originally included as a bonus disc on early versions of Weld, Arc is 35 minutes of stray guitar explosions, feedback screeches, stage announcements, and drum checks, all edited together to form a continuous (and actually rather compelling) listening experience.; Available at: Amazon

Broken Arrow: The man's unpredictability has been a major reason he's remained vital for nigh on 30 years, so it's good to see he's still cranky enough to serve up these raw, sloppy, and, for hardcore fans, invigorating jam sessions with his fave band.; Available at: Amazon

Decade: This album defined Young to rock radio the way Hot Rocks determined which Rolling Stones songs would become classics, but this is more than a quickie greatest-hits collection. Rarities and hits--Springfield's "Mr. Soul," CSNY's "Ohio," and Young's "Cinnamon Girl," "Heart of Gold," and the closing "Long May You Run"--develop in thematic and chronological patterns.; Available at: Amazon

Harvest: Proclaiming his intentions with "Are You Ready for the Country?" Young detoured briefly to the Nashville mainstream. On this No. 1 1972 album, even the singer's acquired-taste voice comes across smooth and beautiful--the smash "Heart of Gold," with steel guitars and Linda Ronstadt's backup vocals, is by far Young's most commercial-sounding song.; Available at: Amazon

Freedom: Freedom was Young's return to form after almost a decade of electronic experiments and mediocre novelty music. The romantic ballads, grunge-predicting guitar-rockers, and one amazing, punk-like story-song constitute Young's strongest writing in years.; Available at: Amazon

Are You Passionate?: Though Are You Passionate? is Neil Young's studio-recorded follow-up to 2000's Silver & Gold, it might well have emerged on the heels of Harvest Moon.; Available at: Amazon

Year Of The Horse: I respect the opinions of those Neil fans who give this live album low marks---but I respectfully disagree. I don't mind that "Year" doesn't cover all his hits---I've GOT those. I love hearing the obscure stuff. What I also love is the mesmerising jamming of a seasoned band of totally hard-core, down-to-earth veteran musicians/survivors who have lived through a lot together. Neil fans who've avoided this based on bad reviews should up and take the plunge.; Available at: Amazon

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere: Young's second solo album introduces the cockeyed harmonies and sloppy, chiming guitars of Crazy Horse. His wide swings from soft-spoken country-folk to menacing metal indicate the multiple personalities in Young's future.; Available at: Amazon

Ragged Glory: After a long period of unfocused weirdness, Young spotted grunge around the corner and declared unity with the loud, scruffy sounds coming from Seattle. The countryish ballads, such as the opening "Farmer John," get roaring Crazy Horse treatment, and the headbanging "F*!#in' Up" is the most self-effacing rock anthem since the Who recorded "I'm a Boy."; Available at: Amazon

Rust Never Sleeps: Young has recorded many live albums, but none capture his two dominant musical personalities with as much power as 1979's Rust Never Sleeps.; Available at: Amazon

Harvest Moon: When Neil Young seems about to zig, he zags. Two years after 1990's loud Ragged Glory, he retreats to an old world of steel guitars, gentle folk melodies, and pristine country choruses. This album, as Young sings in "One of These Days," is "a long letter to all the good friends I've known."; Available at: Amazon

After The Gold Rush: After laboring in Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Neil Young finally hit perfect pitch--if his endearing off-center whine can be called "perfect"--with his third album. His creaky ensemble, including pianist Jack Nitzsche and rotating members of Crazy Horse, transforms ramshackle country and folk songs into soulful hippie hymns.; Available at: Amazon

Tonight's The Night: From the slow, tension-building piano opening of "Tonight's the Night," Neil downshifts into darkness and Crazy Horse's folk-country melodies take on a guttural hum that would eventually speak to generations of punk and grunge musicians.; Available at: Amazon

Live Rust: As with Rust Never Sleeps, Live Rust opens with steady-flowing acoustic numbers before swirling into an electric vortex. What was side 4 off the original two-record version--"Like a Hurricane," "Hey, Hey, My, My," and "Tonight's the Night"--is arguably Young and Crazy Horse at their peak as a live unit.; Available at: Amazon

Zuma: If Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and Ragged Glory are the two finest studio albums Neil Young recorded with Crazy Horse, Zuma certainly qualifies as a close third. Recorded in 1975, Zuma exudes both a sense of focus and a tentative optimism, two qualities that were completely MIA from the bleak Time Fades Away/Tonight's the Night/On the Beach trilogy that preceded it.; Available at: Amazon

Unplugged: Based on past form ol' Neil should have been about ready to kiss off the sizeable audience he recaptured with Harvest Moon with an amp-shredding noisefest. Instead he aims to please here with vintage repertoire, the debut of a 1976 gem, some tasty departures and a heart-tugging "Helpless".; Available at: Amazon

Comes A Time: Often overlooked as it comes between Young's career-defining 1977 three-LP set Decade and the decade-ending Rust Never Sleeps, Comes a Time is a gentle album that includes some of Young's most soft-spoken material. Lacking his usual conceptual thrust, you'll just have to settle for some great songs.; Available at: Amazon

Weld: Live Rust gets the most props, but if you're looking for a live document of Neil Young and Crazy Horse at their speaker-shredding, stage-scorching best, Weld is an absolute must-own. Fired up by the success of 1990's Ragged Glory, and outraged by the eruption of the Gulf War, Young and his cohorts attacked their 1991 tour like men on a suicide mission.; Available at: Amazon

Neil Young: Released in early 1969, Neil Young's first solo album is essentially an extension of "Broken Arrow" and "Expecting to Fly," his two most inventive contributions to Buffalo Springfield. Jack Nitzsche arranged and produced several of the tracks, fusing haunting strings and even funky female backing vocals to acoustic-oriented songs like "Here We Are in the Years" and "The Old Laughing Lady."; Available at: Amazon

Long May You Run: Neil Young's songs from this ill-fated collaboration are widely regarded as toss-offs, but the disc does contain three or four swell Young tunes and the title track is among his finest work from the mid-'70s.; Available at: Amazon

Rust Never Sleeps - The Concert Film: Neil Young's 1978 concert tour, documented in this acclaimed two-hour film that was directed by Young himself (using the pseudonym Bernard Shakey), is a treat for the singer-songwriter's fans. DVD bonus material includes photos and song lyrics.; Available at: Amazon

Lucky Thirteen: Strange to say, this retrospective of '80s recordings from Neil Young's lamentable stretch with Geffen Records is a must-own for true fans of the man. Though it's riddled with failed experiments, and offers up the most diluted rock of Young's remarkable career, Lucky 13 is fascinating on its own skewed terms.; Available at: Amazon

Mirrorball: Substituting eager Pearl Jam for wizened Crazy Horse, Young returns to the Ragged Glory formula--big guitars, droning rhythm, mystical poetry--for this one-off 1995 CD after a joint concert tour. Pearl Jam focuses Young's ideas and challenges him in ways the more forgiving Horse never does.; Available at: Amazon

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