Favorite post 1980 Neil Young Record

[Scott Gyrrr]

Sleeps with angels

Weld (I've only got the two cd version without the Arc part)

Harvest Moon

Ragged Glory

[Sir Stewart]

now "Crime in the City" is some socio political statment that has no melody, nothing musically to hang your cap on and politically conscious lyrics that make me cringe. I will never listen to that song again. It made me feel nothing, except sad for Neil having written it. Just because a song tackles an important issue or heavy issue doesn't make it a good song. I wish neil would just write 1000 songs about love, for example "Good to See You" off of Silver and Gold is outstanding. Ok he has written 1000 songs about love, I'll take 1000 more.

 

'Crime In The City' man, now there's a song with atmosphere.

[boywiththorninside]

Another vote for Harvest Moon. I love all of the songs from that one that have already been mentioned.

 

I also like Silver & Gold a whole lot. "Razor Love" is outstanding.

 

Prairie Wind is another nice, gentle post-1980's Neil record.

[CortezTheKiller]

Now you can tear me apart.

I get paid by a ten year old. He says he looks up to me. There's still crime in the city. But it's good to be free.

 

I won't tear you apart. I simply disagree with how you approach Neil. At the end of the day, we both still love the man. All good. Happy New Year!

[uncool2pillow]

I get paid by a ten year old. He says he looks up to me. There's still crime in the city. But it's good to be free.

 

I won't tear you apart. I simply disagree with how you approach Neil. At the end of the day, we both still love the man. All good. Happy New Year!

[Lammycat]

Harvest Moon

MTv Unplugged

[Moss]

'Crime In The City' man, now there's a song with atmosphere.

 

I agree, that song sits in well with the rest of the album.

 

Lyrically that album is great. "No more" captures drug addiction very well:

 

Searchin' for quality

Havin' to have the very best

Now scroungin' for quantity

Never havin' time

To do the test

That's how the story goes

[anthony]

Harvest Moon

MTv Unplugged

 

I agree.

 

The unplugged record is so good.

[Vacant Horizon]

Few thoughts:

 

1980-Hawks and Doves-totally inconsistent. the first 3 songs are masterpieces. i wish neil had put out some amazing introspective album in the 70s with all those gems including little wing, old homestead, home fires, lost in space, sad movies, try, stringman, hitchhiker, will to love, pardon my heart, too far gone, etc. i know some of those tunes were supposed to be on homegrown. maybe i'll have to make a mix.

 

next up...1981.

[Vacant Horizon]

1981-Reactor

 

All that crazy shit with his kid came up, but still neil managed an album. the production is warm yet tiny. there are a few fun tunes here like opera star and surfer joe. TBone and Shots are terrible. the acoustic version of shots, though, is up there with and of his gems.

with side two of rust never sleeps, i think crazy horse became, at least for a while, this kind of novelty band. neil making fun of rock and roll. welfare mothers, into the black, the whole reactor album.

[Sir Stewart]

I agree, that song sits in well with the rest of the album.

 

I recall in a RS piece someone in his band mentioned Neil had like at least a dozen more verses for Crime In The City and 'maybe someday he'll make us play the whole thing!' or something. It was funny. I'd love to hear that.

[CortezTheKiller]

"Razor Love" is outstanding.

I got faith in you.

[Vacant Horizon]

1982-Trans

totally goofy and inconsistent. would love to hear that Island Sun record he did before trans with all those love songs and rainin' in paradise. i do like little thing called love, but no keepers on this album.

 

1983-Everybody's Rockin

Terrible--can't help but wonder about Wonderin' being on that lost crazy horse album that was planned before danny died.

 

1985-Old Ways

slick country crap. i do like My Boy though since i have two sons. old ways I was probably great.

 

1986-Landing on Water

unlistenable. might have been a great album if neil had just done the tunes up crazy horse style. the songs really aren't that bad. what gets me is how much work he seems to put into his worst albums.

 

1987-Life

again, produced terribly, but some good songs. the only keeper is Inca Queen. neil continues with that goofy crazy horse approach...prisoner's of rock and roll?

 

1988-American Dream, Blue Notes

Both really bad albums. however, American Dream did have Feel Your Love which is a gem.

 

so, still no best album post 1980...we might have a nice mix of gems from that era though.

[So Long]

I used to love Ragged Glory...it's a bit too much now though

[mountain bed]

1982-Trans

totally goofy and inconsistent. would love to hear that Island Sun record he did before trans with all those love songs and rainin' in paradise. i do like little thing called love, but no keepers on this album.

 

1983-Everybody's Rockin

Terrible--can't help but wonder about Wonderin' being on that lost crazy horse album that was planned before danny died.

 

1985-Old Ways

slick country crap. i do like My Boy though since i have two sons. old ways I was probably great.

 

1986-Landing on Water

unlistenable. might have been a great album if neil had just done the tunes up crazy horse style. the songs really aren't that bad. what gets me is how much work he seems to put into his worst albums.

 

1987-Life

again, produced terribly, but some good songs. the only keeper is Inca Queen. neil continues with that goofy crazy horse approach...prisoner's of rock and roll?

 

1988-American Dream, Blue Notes

Both really bad albums. however, American Dream did have Feel Your Love which is a gem.

 

so, still no best album post 1980...we might have a nice mix of gems from that era though.

I totally understand what you're saying here, but here's the weird thing, to me: I saw all of those tours (Trans, Shocking Pinks, International Harvesters, "3rd Greatest Garage Band", Bluenotes, etc) and I thought they were all amazing, for the most part. It just seems odd that Neil could put out a string of such hit-and-miss records but still kill in the live setting.

[Vacant Horizon]

I totally understand what you're saying here, but here's the weird thing, to me: I saw all of those tours (Trans, Shocking Pinks, International Harvesters, "3rd Greatest Garage Band", Bluenotes, etc) and I thought they were all amazing, for the most part. It just seems odd that Neil could put out a string of such hit-and-miss records but still kill in the live setting.

 

 

well said. i think all those tours would have been great fun! i can't wait for archive releases from those eras. shocking pinks would've been a fun live set before the 'real' neil young came out. intl harvesters did some cool versions of old neil classics. rusted out garage just looks amazing, given what i've seen. so, good points.

[Vacant Horizon]

the comeback!

 

1989-freedom

not up to 70s standards, but still a pretty good album. the two versions of rockin' are good, if not overplayed. crime in the city is excellent with the subtle horns and acoustic guitar. same with eldorado. ways of love is a bit cheesy, but i love hangin on a limb and too far gone. broadway is so dumb, but it's neil. this might be his best album of the 80s-90s. it was definitely a breath of fresh air after the 80s. (it does have some slick 80s production though;(

[John Smith]

1. Harvest Moon

2. Silver & Gold

3. Sleeps With Angels

4. Prairie Wind

5. Living With War

 

i actually LOVE Greendale... cheesy storyline and all, there's 2 totally amazing songs on there (i'd put Bandit up there w/ his best stuff for me...), but i can understand those who didn't get into it.

 

Love it yet it is not in your top five? You must really love those five then.

 

so, still no best album post 1980...we might have a nice mix of gems from that era though.

 

Lucky 13 is the mix of 1980's stuff. In spite of all the varying styles it does play fairly well since it picks the better songs off these bad albums.

 

 

For me post 1980 stuff in no particular order I like:

 

Hawks & Doves

Reactor

Freedom

Eldorado

Greendale

Weld

[Vacant Horizon]

The 90s...

 

From Freedom on through the end of the 90s, Neil didn't miss a beat. he was still inconsistent, but the quality of tunes was better as was production.

 

1990-Ragged Glory

As far as I am concerned, RG is the second real crazy horse record (the first being EKTIN). just neil and the band. no random tunes from other sessions thrown in and no cheese. that being said, i have a hard time listening to this all the way through. some of the lyrics are terrible and some of the songs do have a toss of feel to them. i love country home, white line, over and over. the love songs are a bit long for me, but still pretty good. mansion on hill is ok, but natural anthem is pretty bad. the album does have a bit of late 80s slickness to it, but it's as good, if not better, than freedom and very consistent. is this the best album post 80?

[solace]

Love it yet it is not in your top five? You must really love those five then.

 

i do.

 

the only post '00 album of Neil's i don't like is Passionate, and to a lesser extent, Chrome Dreams II (even tho most of it's all from the late 80's)

 

if i was to rank the decades of Neil's work... for me:

 

70's

60's

00's

90's

80's

[dagwave]

re-ac-tor

 

"got mashed potatoes

ain't got no t-bone"

 

I remember buying that record as a follow up to Decade, which I bought when I was 14. Thank God I didn't judge Neil on that 10981 record alone....

 

FYI PSU/ USC Rose Bowl just used "Rockin in the Free World" as a commercial outro while I was typing this post!!

[calvino]

FYI PSU/ USC Rose Bowl just used "Rockin in the Free World" as a commercial outro while I was typing this post!!

 

This Note's for you.

[teleman]

Freedom

Harvest Moon

Ragged Glory

 

There are songs on others that I like.

[Vacant Horizon]

I used to love Ragged Glory...it's a bit too much now though

 

 

yep

[thermocaster]

Sleeps With Angels is my favorite of his post-80 output. It was one of the first NY albums I bought on CD, and it took me about 7 years to get into it, but the whole album just spooks me out emotionally...which not many albums do.

 

Mirror Ball is an excellent road trip album. Yeah, it drones a bit, and as I heard someone say, the songs probably took a total of 40 minutes to write, but there's really not a bad track on the whole album.

 

Broken Arrow is another excellent album, provided you can get beyond the lack of chord changes in Loose Change and the C+ audience recording at the end of the disc.

 

I also want to put a good word in for Trans. I agree that the light acoustic stuff at the start of each side of the album sucks, but the vocoder stuff is freaking awesome. Computer Age may be in my top 5 favorite Neil songs.