I started Neil Young's discography mid-2019, which is why a number of these albums have asterisks (see the blog page Grades to learn more about these) and finished it in August 2020. I only started brief notes along with my grades around mid-2020, which is why only some of his more recent albums have written reviews. Young and the Rolling Stones trade spots being my second favorite artist even though the vast majority of Young's albums after 1980 aren't worthwhile. If you would like to get into Neil's music, I recommend listening to all Neil Young’s albums from Everybody Knows This is Nowhere to Hawks & Doves. If you enjoy that, skip to rest of his B+'s and up. Click here for my review of the Stills-Young Band's album Long May You Run.
Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969): A-*
After the Gold Rush (1970): A+*
Harvest (1972): B+*
Time Fades Away (1973): B+*
On the Beach (1974): B+*
Tonight’s the Night (1975): A+*
Zuma (1975): A-*
American Stars ‘n Bars (1977): B*
Comes a Time (1978): A-*
Rust Never Sleeps (1979): A*
Live Rust (1979): B-*
Hawks & Doves (1980): B+*
Re-ac-tor (1981): B*
Trans (1982): B-*
Everybody’s Rockin’ (1983): B-*
Old Ways (1985): B-*
Landing in Water (1986): C-*
Life (1987): C*
This Note’s for You (1988): B-*
Freedom (1989): A-
Ragged Glory (1990): A-
Weld (1991): B-
Arc (1991): C-
Harvest Moon (1992): B+
Lucky Thirteen (1993): C
Unplugged (1993): B-
Sleeps with Angels (1994): B-
Mirror Ball (1995): B
Dead Man (1996): C-
Broken Arrow (1996): C+
Year of the Horse (1997): B-
Silver & Gold (2000): C
Road Rock Vol. 1 (2000): C+
Are You Passionate? (2002): C
Greendale (2003): C-
Prairie Wind (2005): B-
Living With War (2006): C+
Live at Fillmore East 1970 (2006): B-
Live at Massey Hall 1971 (2007): B
Chrome Dreams II (2007): B-
Sugar Mountain-Live at Canterbury 1968 (2008): C
Fork in the Road (2009): B
The Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972 (2009): C
Dreamin' Man Live '92 (2009): C+
Le Noise (2010): B
A Treasure (2011): B-
Americana (2012): A-
Psychedelic Pill (2012): B+
Live at Cellar Door (2013): C
A Letter Home (2014): B+
Storytone (2014): B-
The Monsanto Years (2015): C+
Bluenote Café (2015): B-
Earth (2016): C
Peace Trails (2016): C
Hitchhiker (2017): B-
The Visitor (2017): C+
Paradox (2018): C+
ROXY: Tonight's the Night Live (2018): B
Songs for Judy (2018): B
Tuscaloosa (2019): B-
Colorado (2019): C+
Homegrown (2020): B
Way Down in the Rust Bucket (2021): A-
Young Shakespeare (2021): C+
Barn (2021): B-
World Record (2022): C+
Chrome Dreams (2023): B
Before and After (2023): B
Early Daze (2024): B
Chrome Dreams II (2007):
Even an 18 min epic recorded during his earlier years isn't enough to make this late career album much of a listen, although it does make it better than most of his more recent work. B-
Fork in the Road (2009):
Young's best concept album isn't his best because of some new found lyrical inspiration: it's his best because it's musically inspired. And sure Young overstates the concept once again, but you can quite easily tune out the lyrics if you want--I always do. B
The Archives Vol. 1 1963-1972 (2009):
Over 7 hours and only his Squires days and three other songs are of interest. Of course the live albums are good, but they've already been released. C
Le Noise (2010):
Daniel Lanois's production style is perfect for a guitarist of Neil Young's caliber. Young isn't always there, but this sounds like the beginning of a comeback. B
A Treasure (2011):
Better than the original Old Ways, these country songs rock and roll--fiddle and all. And Neil Young brings what he always brings to his live albums: energy. B-
Americana (2012):
Young’s exquisite twists on these American traditionals is less a result of hard work and more that Young and his backing band Crazy Horse are having fun. And who wouldn’t enjoy putting guitar solos on "Oh Susannah"? A-
Psychedelic Pill (2012):
Although Americana is the better album, it wasn’t for everyone. However, this collab with Crazy Horse will even interest fans who stopped listening after Harvest Moon. “Ramada Inn” is the best Neil Young song since the ‘90s and stands against his best work. The other two long songs probably won’t inspire many replays but they nevertheless impress for most of their allotted time and anyway "Born in Ontario," "Twisted Roast," and "She's Always Dancing" put me in a forgiving mood and any song on Psychedelic Pill would have been a highlight on a Neil Young studio album from the 20 years preceding it (not counting Americana and Harvest Moon). B+
Live at Cellar Door (2013):
Pretty dull but "Cinnamon Girl" on piano is something you'll want to check out. C
A Letter Home (2014):
If it sounds like this album was recorded in a cardboard box, you hear well. I love it when it works. "Early Morning Rain" is excellent and in eschewing beauty, most of these songs hit the beauty bullseye. B+
Storytone (2014):
The big band sounds just as overblown as it did on 1988's This Note's for You, maybe more. Also, like This Note's for You, you can't help but enjoy it with reservations. The orchestra sounds mostly overblown too, but "Who's Gonna Stand Up" is great, not to mention it completely evades the corniness and overstatement that invalidates most of Neil's late career protest music. B-
The Monsanto Years (2015):
Neil started jamming with Promise of the Real after Farm Aid, so it's only fitting their first collaboration would be a protest album criticizing the agribusiness Monsanto. Promise of the Real mostly cut it but their vocal contributions are almost always unwelcome. That said, Neil has yet to show the knack for concept albums--I only found Fork in the Road enjoyable because I could entirely ignore the lyrics--even with Crazy Horse, with whom he made one of his worst albums Greendale. The topics covered here are mostly admirable but overstating his themes with less than elegant lyrics has always been elderly Neil's weakness. However, "People Want to Hear about Love" is one of the best protest lyrics he's ever written. Unfortunately, it's also where the backing vocals are their most pervasive. C+
Earth (2016):
Promise of the Real sound much better on this album and occasionally they play quite competently. With animal noise during many of the songs as well as all these songs being about Earth, this may be the first concept live album I've ever heard. However, the animal sounds are so terribly pervasive they ruin any chance I'll listen to any song off the album again. Plus, the animal noises aren't the graceful chirping of birds--quite the opposite. C
Peace Trails (2016):
Oh Neil, there used to interesting, strange, but lovely moments on albums like this. After all, Hawks & Doves draws me back significantly more than it should. These days there are rarely enjoyable moments on your albums that I don't have reservations about, and on this album, there are rarely enjoyable moments to begin with. My two favorite parts of this album are "Peace Trails" (with reservations) and when the album abruptly ends (without reservations). C
Hitchhiker (2017):
Even though the original "Powderfinger" will be treasured by many many Neil Young fans--I've been anticipating listening to this album for two months because of it--this is not a particularly strong album. Listen closely and you'll realize "Pocahontas," "Captain Kennedy," and "Campaigner" are so good because they are essentially the same versions you already know (without overdubs). Then there's "Ride My Llama," "Hitchhiker," "Human Highway," and "The Old Country Waltz" all of which are nice, but have better versions. Finally, there's the previously unreleased "Hawaii" and "Give Me Strength," which are also good, but I'm not surprised they weren't released at the time. B-
The Visitor (2017):
This is certainly sprinkled with the protest music and his left-leaning political opinions that by this point have defined Neil’s late career projects, but this is not a full blown concept album, for which I’m thankful. Neil and Promise of the Real share some good instrumental moments--more than what was on The Monsanto Years--but this album is also riddled with what makes Neil’s late career music so disappointing: clunky playing, rudimentary lyrics to tackle complex topics, and cringey sing-alongs. Also, because of all the protest music that he’s recently made criticizing the US, it only seems fair, in light of this, he should have addressed why he thinks the US is “Already Great." C+
Paradox (2018):
Simply by not including any dialogue from the movie, this soundtrack is already much better than Dead Man. In addition, the only songs which are improvised to the extent that Dead Man was are the "Paradox Passage" songs and not one of those is over three minutes. "Cowgirl Jam" is easily the best song, but there are a number of decent performances outside of this too. C+
Songs for Judy (2018):
It shouldn't surprise any Neil Young fans that his acoustic performances from this time (1976) were top-notch. Even better, Neil was performing many songs that had not been released by this time. He's witty with his remarks to the audience, but his raps are never too long like in his early days. B
Tuscaloosa (2019):
Not many of these songs from Young’s Time Fades Away tour sound better than previous versions--“Time Fades Away” and “Look out Joe” both have great guitar solos though--but this is definitely a strong showing. Young emotionally chants “Don’t Be Denied” at the song’s end and you can tell he believes it. Not only that, he desperately wants you to believe it too. I’m happy to report it’s the best version. B-
Colorado (2019):
Perhaps I was too optimistic to assume this collaboration with Crazy Horse would be any good. How was I supposed to know he would continue writing the same elementary protest lyrics he’s been writing since 2015? The simple lyrics about himself, his other favorite subject, used to work when he had guitar work and melodies to die for--“Lookin’ for Love” comes to mind--but even with Crazy Horse, neither the guitar nor melodies are worth remembering. C+
Homegrown (2020):
If released when it was supposed to, it would have been his worst album of the '70s. Which is not to say it's a poor effort at all: half of the songs are great. B
Way Down in the Rust Bucket (2021):
There are three Neil Young periods that I strongly wish I could have seen live: September 1973 when he performed Tonight's the Night at Roxy Theater, the Rust Never Sleeps tour, and the Ragged Glory tour. This is the Ragged Glory tour (sort of--just a little before) and his stage performance was at its peak funny--check out both his SNL performance of "Rockin' in the Free World" the year prior and "When the Levee Breaks" with Zeppelin in 1995, which are on youtube. Although the album is quite long, it almost never slows down or loses energy. It also has some pretty good deep cuts, which are all excellent. A-
Young Shakespeare (2021):
Recorded only three days after Live at Massey Hall 1971, this is a pretty good acoustic set by Neil Young at one of his artistic peaks. Because I find the raps with the audience on this one to be pretty boring and because the two setlists are pretty similar, I'll let you skip this one in favor of Massey Hall, which I apparently really dug. A lot of other people really dug it too. I haven't seen any enthusiasm for this unnecessary release. C+
Barn (2021):
Only because Neil Young has proven to be such a pitifully disappointing creative force in the 21st century--especially as of late--I'm fairly satisfied with this ramshackled jam with good ol’ Crazy Horse. Nevertheless, I admit its greater insignificance in any sort of musical library, much less Neil’s. It's been too long for me to recall the state of his voice on his last studio album Colorado but here it's shot, considerably distracting and dragging down his best songwriting and guitar playing since Psychedelic Pill. As with pretty much every time the elder Young has put pen to paper--especially whenever he tackles anything political--his lyrics are predictably simple and unenlightening. Crazy Horse, even without the essential Frank "Poncho" Sampedro, occasionally rumble with enough expertise to recall their last great effort Americana but they never match it. All of this is good enough to inspire three decent tracks I may pleasantly recall but perhaps will never reach for: "Canerican," "Tumblin' Thru the Years," and "Welcome Back." The rest, besides the intolerable "Change Ain't Never Gonna," "Shape of You," and "They Might Be Lost," comes off as quite listenable if not a little better. B-
World Record (2022):
I suppose this isn't much worse than Barn but skimming the highlights of his previous studio album, I am pleased to find they still hold up. Here, Young and Crazy Horse hardly rock out (except for "Chevrolet," which is okay) so all we're left with is the worst elements of his previous record. And though Young is famed for always coming up with something new, everything about his songwriting sounds like a broken record. C+
Chrome Dreams (2023):
The much bootlegged Chrome Dreams was rightly hyped as one of the great lost records of Neil's career but other than "Stringman," versions of all these songs were released by 1980 and this album doesn't feel so essential anymore. Although it's certainly nice to hear a more intimate cut of "Pochontas," I love the overdubs added on Rust Never Sleeps. I also love the more muscular "Powderfinger" and the speedy "Sedan Delivery" to the versions here. Then there's the many songs from American Stars 'n Bars, which has always been my least favorite album of his 70s output ("Will to Love" is still a drag and "Like a Hurricane" is usually better live). B
Before and After (2023):
Even though Neil's career in the 21st century has been more down than up, he's rarely disappointed on acoustic recordings. For this particular endeavor, fans are even treated to excellent re-recordings from Young's past, ranging from his days with Buffalo Springfield to his 2021 album Barn. Although the straightforward approach to the strong material is a good start, Young's voice continues to lose its strength and makes it difficult to completely embrace the intimate setting. B-
Early Daze (2024):
Collecting outtakes from Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, this new archival release of early Neil Young and Crazy Horse is a great jam fest but not necessarily packed with essential alternative takes. The only revelation on Early Daze is "Helpless," a little more distorted and groovy than we're used to. While not necessary better than the CSNY version, it's a strong take and offers something substantially different. Early attempts at "Dance Dance Dance," "Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown," and "Birds" are a little dull and alternative takes of "Down By the River" and "Cinnamon Girl" are similar enough to the original releases that they don't offer much value. B
