Neil Young

Neil Young – Living with War – In the Beginning (2006/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 38:56 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre:
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

Living with War – In the Beginning is a studio album by Neil Young, released in 2006. It is a stripped-down version of Young’s 2006 album Living with War. The album includes first mixes of the live trio recordings, made the day of recording.

The album’s lyrics, titles, and conceptual style are highly critical of the policies of the George W. Bush administration. Written and recorded over the course of only nine days in March and April 2006, its lyrics are in line with the early 1960s albums of folk artists such as Phil Ochs and Bob Dylan.

On this version of the album, the sound is straight-from-the-source, captured live in the studio exactly the way it was recorded, without the backing instrumentation and choral accompaniment found on the original release.

(more…)

Neil Young – Live At The Cellar Door (2013/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 45:05 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

Live at the Cellar Door is a live album by Neil Young, featuring performances from his six 1970 concerts in Washington D.C. It was released on December 10, 2013. The album is volume 02.5 in Young’s Archives Performance Series. Live at the Cellar Door features songs from multiple early albums created by Young, as well as Buffalo Springfield which include: After the Gold Rush, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Buffalo Springfield (album) and Buffalo Springfield Again.

Additionally, the album features the only known recording of Young performing his classic “Cinnamon Girl” on piano. As stated by his comment on the disc “That’s the first time I’ve ever performed that song on Piano!”

The album closes with the stunning piano track: “Flying on the Ground is Wrong” in which Young humoursly quips: “I had it put in my contracts that I would only play on a nine foot Steinway Grand Piano, just for a little eccentricity.

(more…)

Neil Young – Live at Massey Hall 1971 (2007/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:07:36 minutes | 2,29 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

The acclaimed Toronto performance features classics “Old Man” and, in a suite, “A Man Needs A Maid” and “Heart Of Gold” (before they were recorded for Harvest) along with some of his most popular songs (“Cowgirl In The Sand,” “Ohio”) as well as the most obscure (“Bad Fog Of Loneliness”). Live At Massey Hall is a rock gem.

(more…)

Neil Young – Le Noise (2010/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 38:05 minutes | 347 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

“Le Noise” is the thirty-first studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young. The album was recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Daniel Lanois. “Le Noise” received generally positive reviews with Uncut magazine proclaiming it as the second best album of 2010 in its year-end Top 50 Albums list. This album was number 20 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 30 Best Albums of 2010.

(more…)

Neil Young – Homegrown (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 35:22 minutes | 1,34 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

Neil Young’s “lost album,” Homegrown, gets its debut 41 years late. Young shelved it because he “just couldn’t listen to” the heartache, which followed the collapse of his romance with actress Carrie Snodgress. Meant to fall between Harvest and Comes a Time, the 1974 time capsule fits neatly in that space. “Separate Ways” and “Try,” both featuring drums by Levon Helm, truly feel like an extension of Harvest: the former a noir-country lament and the latter an ambling plea for love lifted aloft by Emmylou Harris’ backing vocals. Throughout, train-whistle harmonica is a Greek chorus, popping up on the gorgeous and hopeless “Star of Bethlehem” (“All your dreams and your lovers won’t protect you”) and stripped-bare “Love Is a Rose”—which would be made famous in ’75 by Linda Ronstadt and here ends with urgent guitar chords like exclamation points of warning. There are moments of indulgence—you’re safe to skip any title that’s the name of a place—but also songs that stand with his best. The blistering “Vacancy” (“You poison me with that long, vacant stare”) and high-lonesome “White Line,” with Robbie Roberston, aren’t to be missed. – Shelly Ridenour

(more…)

Neil Young – Hawks & Doves (1980/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 30:03 minutes | 539 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

Hawks & Doves is the tenth studio album by Canadian folk rock musician Neil Young, released in October 1980.

Hawks & Doves’s two sides were recorded in different circumstances, side one being culled from sessions dating from approximately 1974 through 1977, and side two from sessions set in early 1980 specifically for the album. It is also one of Young’s shortest albums, its running time just under half an hour.

(more…)

Neil Young – Harvest (1972/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 37:42 minutes | 1,28 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

Neil Young’s most popular album, Harvest benefited from the delay in its release (it took 18 months to complete due to Young’s back injury), which whetted his audience’s appetite, the disintegration of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Young’s three erstwhile partners sang on the album, along with Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor), and most of all, a hit single. “Heart of Gold,” released a month before Harvest, was already in the Top 40 when the LP hit the stores, and it soon topped the charts. It’s fair to say, too, that Young simply was all-pervasive by this time: “Heart of Gold” was succeeded at number one by “A Horse with No Name” by America, which was a Young soundalike record. But successful as Harvest was (and it was the best-selling album of 1972), it has suffered critically from reviewers who see it as an uneven album on which Young repeats himself. Certainly, Harvest employs a number of jarringly different styles. Much of it is country-tinged, with Young backed by a new group dubbed the Stray Gators who prominently feature steel guitarist Ben Keith, though there is also an acoustic track, a couple of electric guitar-drenched rock performances, and two songs on which Young is accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra. But the album does have an overall mood and an overall lyric content, and they conflict with each other: The mood is melancholic, but the songs mostly describe the longing for and fulfillment of new love. Young is perhaps most explicit about this on the controversial “A Man Needs a Maid,” which is often condemned as sexist by people judging it on the basis of its title. In fact, the song contrasts the fears of committing to a relationship with simply living alone and hiring help, and it contains some of Young’s most autobiographical writing. Unfortunately, like “There’s a World,” the song is engulfed in a portentous orchestration. Over and over, Young sings of the need for love in such songs as “Out on the Weekend,” “Heart of Gold,” and “Old Man” (a Top 40 hit), and the songs are unusually melodic and accessible. The rock numbers, “Are You Ready for the Country” and “Alabama,” are in Young’s familiar style and unremarkable, and “There’s a World” and “Words (Between the Lines of Age)” are the most ponderous and overdone Young songs since “The Last Trip to Tulsa.” But the love songs and the harrowing portrait of a friend’s descent into heroin addiction, “The Needle and the Damage Done,” remain among Young’s most affecting and memorable songs. –William Ruhlmann

(more…)

Neil Young – Greatest Hits (2004/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:17:10 minutes | 2,66 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

How does one represent the career of one of the most distinctive, powerful singer/songwriters of the 20th century in the space of a single CD? By keeping it simple and sticking to the milestones. That’s exactly what „Greatest Hits“ HITS accomplishes, by presenting 16 of Neil Young’s most beloved compositions. The gritty, fuzz-guitar fury of Young’s work with Crazy Horse (‘Cinnamon Girl,’ ‘Hey Hey, My My [Into the Black]’) brushes up against the acoustic-based, country-tinged ‘Old Man’ and ‘Only Love Can Break Your Heart,’ as well as haunting, soul-baring ballads such as ‘The Needle and the Damage Done.’ Few would deny that the 1970s were Young’s richest decade, and this collection strongly focuses on those years, skipping most of Young’s genre-hopping ’80s albums and grandfather-of-grunge ’90s recordings, but the gems from those years would make a rewarding sequel to this concise, sterling anthology.

(more…)

Neil Young – Fork in the Road (2009/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 38:41 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

Has there ever been anything like an ordinary Neil Young album? No! Even after the release of more than 60 works in almost 45 years, the old Young premise applies: the constant constant remains the unsteady. His recordings move either completely to tease or to admire. “Fork In The Road” has a bit of both.

(more…)

Neil Young with Crazy Horse – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 40:46 minutes | 1,50 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere is the second studio album by the Canadian musician Neil Young, originally released on Reprise Records catalogue RS 6349. His first with backing band Crazy Horse, it peaked at number 34 on the US Billboard 200 and has been certified a platinum album by the RIAA.

(more…)

Neil Young – Dead Man (Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture) (1996/2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:02:23 minutes | 646 MB | Genre: Soundtrack
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Vapor Records

Dead Man is one of those unusual (and often legendary) soundtracks that a director or fan simply “hands over” to a jazz or folk star who improvises to the film that has already been edited. Released in 1996, Jim Jarmusch’s feature film tells the story of the wanderings of William Blake (Johnny Depp) and the Indian Nobody (Gary Farmer) through the Wild West in the late 19th century. Neil Young’s music is light years away from the epic scores found in the golden era of Hollywood westerns and is instead based on just the electric guitar, which is only replaced by an organ for the duration of one track (Organ Solo). The haunting sound of the electric guitar together with the magnificent black and white film plays a key part in creating Dead Man’s strange and psychedelic atmosphere, which is why there are six Guitar Solos on the soundtrack. Sensual, tortured and endearing, Neil Young’s guitar seems bewitched by the film’s visuals and he makes full use of effects like reverberation, distortion and delay. It is rare to find music so physically connected to a film and the marginality of the characters. Among the album’s bravura pieces are the lyrical Solo No.5 (which is almost 15 minutes long), as well as Solo No.6, whose effects sound like the cries of an injured animal. The track ends with the very poignant repetition of two simple notes, and with that the film ends too. It should also be pointed out that there are passages interspersed throughout the album during which Johnny Depp recites poems by William Blake. – Nicolas Magenham

(more…)

Neil Young – Comes A Time (1978/2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 36:59 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

Six and a half years later, Comes a Time finally was the Neil Young album for the millions of fans who had loved Harvest, an acoustic-based record with country overtones and romantic, autobiographical lyrics, and many of those fans returned to the fold, enough to make Comes a Time Young’s first Top Ten album since Harvest. He signaled the album’s direction with the leadoff track, “Goin’ Back,” and its retrospective theme augmented with an orchestral backup and the deliberate beat familiar from his number one hit “Heart of Gold.” Of course, Young remained sly about this retrenchment. “I feel like goin’ back,” he sang, but added, “back where there’s nowhere to stay.” Doubtless he had no intention of staying with this style, but for the length of the album, melodies, love lyrics, lush arrangements, and steel guitar solos dominated, and Young’s vocals were made more accessible by being paired with Nicolette Larson’s harmonies. Larson’s own version of Young’s “Lotta Love,” released shortly after the one heard here, became a Top Ten hit single. Other highlights included the reflective “Already One,” which treats the unusual subject of the nature of a divorced family, the ironic “Field of Opportunity,” and a cover of Ian Tyson’s folk standard “Four Strong Winds” (a country Top Ten hit for Bobby Bare in 1965). –William Ruhlmann

(more…)

Neil Young – Chrome Dreams II (2007/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:06:18 minutes | 1,29 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

Chrome Dreams II is the 28th studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young. The album name references Chrome Dreams, a legendary Neil Young album from 1977 that had originally been scheduled for release but was shelved in favor of American Stars ‘N Bars.

(more…)

Neil Young – Carnegie Hall 1970 (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:31:28 minutes | 3,52 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

The show rounded off a seminal year for Young who had released the ‘After The Gold Rush’ record just 3 months earlier in September which followed on from the ‘D’ej`a Vu’ album he recorded as part of Crosby, Still, Nash & Young in March of the same year. This show is a never before heard recording with Young playing solo on vocals, acoustic guitar, piano and harmonica. Young played two solo acoustic shows at Carnegie Hall that week.

(more…)

Neil Young – Are You Passionate? (Remastered) (2002/2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:05:40 minutes | 2,29 GB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Reprise

Are You Passionate? is the 24th studio album by Canadian / American musician Neil Young, the only album to feature Booker T. & the M.G.’s, and his eighth with Crazy Horse, released on April 9, 2002 as a double LP and as a single CD. It represents Young’s foray into soul music, not sounding like anything he had previously released. Exceptions are rocker “Goin’ Home”, recorded with Crazy Horse, and the brooding “Let’s Roll”, a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The album ends with “She’s a Healer”, an extended jam.

(more…)