Keeping your powder dry: Five of the best from Neil Young

What a joke. Clearly his best album, the best meeting of his acoustic and electric sides. The first 4 up there are joint-second best in my book. Take out Ragged Glory and I'm happy.

would have to go with the Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere crowd over Ragged Glory but then I suppose you had to pick a more 'modern one' lest it just be a nostalgic trip back to his 60's/70's heyday.

Can you do a Tom Waits list now please.

but otherwise the rest of that decade was garbage (i occasionally force myself to listen to Landing On Water, arguably his all-time low point)

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is the obvious starting point... though Ragged Glory was the first Shakey LP i bought (liked the title, does what it says on the tin)

meh

Its obviously not as good as Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere or perhaps Zuma. but if it had not been on the list it would have all been 70's.

The 90's were Neil best decade after the 70's with Ragged Glory, Weld and Sleeps With Angels.

However I also am a big fan of Trans it's a very good record

Sleeps with Angels, best thing he did in the 90s.

Although saying that, the first three tracks on Broken Arrow are excellent.

and I also saw him a few years back when he did the Greendale tour. I was pissed off that it had cost a helluva lot of money (the Greendale tour) and he'd played this weird concept album that no one had ever heard. But then I realised after - that's the beauty of Neil Young - he doesn't give a fuck. He doesn't give a fuck what the crowd thinks, what his record company thinks - or what it will do for his reputation.

It's art, what Neil does - he tranmits his feelings and emotions through his music without pandering to any commercial guidelines. Like with his 80's albums - it was him trying to communicate with his sons. And then Geffen tried to sue him for 'producing music that was unrepresentative of Neil Young'. They completely missed the point.... doing Trans etc... was precisely what Neil is about - doing whatever the hell he likes.

I am always reminded of his comments after the Ditch trilogy - 'Harvest was successful, and took me to the middle of the road - but I found it a bore travelling there, so I headed for the ditch. It was a rougher ride, but I met some more interesting people there'.

hello live rust.

and Zuma,

I'd also make a very real shout for Greendale - still probably my favourite Neil album and his most underrated by some distance.

Also - On the Beach: fun?! Have you even heard Ambulance Blues??? It's bleak as anything.

It's fun to see someone who offers comments passionately, and not just offering a single line "yeah that's good" or even worse just going " ^this". You're a rare find indeed. I'll add that I think Sleeps With Angels shits on Ragged Glory too, and since nobody's mentioned much of his post-2000 output, that Chrome Dream II is really, really good, although the songs might be reworked from the vault, 'Ordinar People' is worth the entrance price alone. I still have a soft spot for Freedom though, it's almost his 'Born to Run' only he's obviously Neil Young, not Springsteen, so it's marginally more nuts. Each album's so different though, it's hard comparing each one. I mean, I really like Harvest Moon, although a lot of people disregard that, to which I say "Such a Woman" which ends arguments from time to time. The only albums of his I've never fallen for are Mirrorball, and Ragged Glory, funnily enough, and both for different reasons. I didn't get that into Prairie Wind either, although the documentary/live film is excellent.

I agree that the 80's were probably his weakest decade but I think Trans is actually a very underrated album. Not only does is contain some very good non-vocoder songs like "Little Thing Called Love" and the absolutely spectacular "Like an Inca" (Download it now if you haven't heard it before, it's a classic), the vocoder songs themselves really aren't unlistenable as we were led to believe. "We R In Control" is very cool robotic paranoid disco funk, "Sample and Hold" sounds like Crazy Horse covering Kraftwerk and "Transformer Man", a very sweet song Neil wrote for his son, sounds perfect as an electronic pop ballad.

Trans isn't his best album, but I'd go as far to say it was the best he made in the decade. It's an interesting experiment that pays off with a few really great song and it should be owned by anyone who considers them a Neil Young fan.

songwise it's very good and i actually think the vocoder experiments are really poignant: it was Neil's attempt to communicate with his son Ben who has cerebral palsy

it's slightly DiSappointing that the author won't touch it with a bargepole - surely part of the fun of being a Young fan is following his odd little detours? - though i appreciate that this is meant to be an introductory article

and i'd second all the votes for Sleeps With Angels too

when I first got into Neil Young in the late 80s or whenever he was seen as a 'heritage artist' (though I'm not sure that term had yet to be coined) and somewhat past it.. He's what - early 60s now? So he would have been in his early 40s then! Younger than Nick Cave is now. Sorry my point is... folks should just check him out! Yes Chrome Dreams II is great. I have to admit to struggling with Greendale, Prairie Wind, Living With War etc. I'm sure there time will come though. I've just had to check to see if I have Trans! I don't! You see after nearly 20 years of listening to the dude and I'm still missing 'key' albums... Who other than Dylan can you compare him to? Springsteen? I think not.
Oh and The Bridge- the covers album - feat. Loop (LOOP!!!!), Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips, Psychic TV, Victoria Williams, Nikki Sudden etc is THE BEST covers album.
Neil Young. Bloody hell:)

the original unreleased Chrome Dreams. There are a few songs on there that were released on subsequent albums but on this they have different versions. As an album it really works and is really good.

The recent archive stuff has been brilliant, can't wait for more

are way underrated, Prairie Wind and Silver & Gold are growing on me... think i have all Neil's official albums including the long lost Time Fades Away but there's still stuff out there like that Eldorado EP you mentioned that i need to eBay

"oh trans am... dont remember it. i have to google on that one."

:-)

I was lucky to get a ticket to his recent London show. It was an amazing night, and 3 and a half hours long. Great acoustic set and a stonking electric set. I was blown away. The man is now 62 years old and still an amazing performer. You can keep yer Pete Dohertys and million rubbish Indie bands of today!! I'd rather have just 2 minutes of Neil than listen to mosta the music on offer today. (yeah, i'm grumpy!)
Regarding his albums...After The Goldrush still has power and emotion, after all these years...I first heard it in the mid-70s.
I'm also rather partial to Weld, it's full of great riffs and lyrics.
Yeah, the Mojo interview/feature is pretty good. There's a small piece on him in Uncut too.