Neil Young - Neil Young (1968/2014)
 FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time - 36:25 minutes | 1,39 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

 Neil Young is the self-titled debut studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young, which was his debut release as a solo artist following his departure from the band Buffalo Springfield. Released first in January 1969, it was then partially remixed and re-released almost a year later, in November 1969. In neither case did it appear on the Billboard 200 album chart.


 On his songs for Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young had demonstrated an eclecticism that ranged from the rock of "Mr. Soul" to the complicated, multi-part arrangement of "Broken Arrow." On his debut solo album, he continued to work with composer/arranger Jack Nitzsche, with whom he had made "Expecting to Fly" on the Buffalo Springfield Again album, and together the two recorded a restrained effort on which the folk-rock instrumentation, most of which was by Young, overdubbing himself, was augmented by discreet string parts. The country & western elements that had tinged the Springfield's sound were also present, notably on the leadoff track, "The Emperor of Wyoming," an instrumental that recalled the Springfield song "A Child's Claim to Fame." Still unsure of his voice, Young sang in a becalmed high tenor that could be haunting as often as it was listless and whining. He was at his least appealing on the nine-and-a-half-minute closing track, "The Last Trip to Tulsa," on which he accompanied himself with acoustic guitar, singing an impressionistic set of lyrics seemingly derived from Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. But double-tracking and the addition of a female backup chorus improved the singing elsewhere, and on "The Loner," the album's most memorable track, Young displayed some of the noisy electric guitar work that would characterize his recordings with Crazy Horse and reminded listeners of his ability to turn a phrase. Still, Neil Young made for an uneven, low-key introduction to Young's solo career, and when released it was a commercial flop, his only album not to make the charts.  


Tracklist:

 01 - The Emperor Of Wyoming
 02 - The Loner
 03 - If I Could Have Her Tonight
 04 - I've Been Waiting For You
 05 - The Old Laughing Lady
 06 - String Quartet From Whiskey Boot Hill
 07 - Here We Are In The Years
 08 - What Did You Do To My Life?
 09 - I've Loved Her So Long
 10 - The Last Trip To Tulsa

 2014 Remaster.

Neil Young - After The Gold Rush (1970/2014)
 FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time - 35:05 minutes | 1,33 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

 After the Gold Rush is the third studio album by Canadian musician Neil Young. Released in September 1970 on Reprise Records, it was one of the four high-profile albums released by each member of folk rock collective Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young in the wake of their chart-topping 1970 album Déjà Vu. Gold Rush consisted mainly of country folk music, along with the rocking "Southern Man". Songs were inspired by the Dean Stockwell-Herb Berman screenplay After the Gold Rush.


 In the 15 months between the release of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere and After the Gold Rush, Neil Young issued a series of recordings in different styles that could have prepared his listeners for the differences between the two LPs. His two compositions on the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album Déjà Vu, "Helpless" and "Country Girl," returned him to the folk and country styles he had pursued before delving into the hard rock of Everybody Knows; two other singles, "Sugar Mountain" and "Oh, Lonesome Me," also emphasized those roots. But "Ohio," a CSNY single, rocked as hard as anything on the second album. After the Gold Rush was recorded with the aid of Nils Lofgren, a 17-year-old unknown whose piano was a major instrument, turning one of the few real rockers, "Southern Man" (which had unsparing protest lyrics typical of Phil Ochs), into a more stately effort than anything on the previous album and giving a classic tone to the title track, a mystical ballad that featured some of Young's most imaginative lyrics and became one of his most memorable songs. But much of After the Gold Rush consisted of country-folk love songs, which consolidated the audience Young had earned through his tours and recordings with CSNY; its dark yet hopeful tone matched the tenor of the times in 1970, making it one of the definitive singer/songwriter albums, and it has remained among Young's major achievements.  


Tracklist:

 01 - Tell Me Why
 02 - After The Gold Rush
 03 - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
 04 - Southern Man
 05 - Till The Morning Comes
 06 - Oh, Lonesome Me
 07 - Don't Let It Bring You Down
 08 - Birds
 09 - When You Dance I Can Really Love
 10 - I Believe In You
 11 - Cripple Creek Ferry

 2014 Remaster.

Neil Young - Harvest (1972/2014)
 FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time - 37:43 minutes | 1,34 GB
Studio Master, Official Digital Download | Artwork: Front cover

 Harvest is the fourth album by the Canadian musician Neil Young, released on February 14, 1972 on Reprise Records. It featured the London Symphony Orchestra on two tracks and vocals by the noted guests David Crosby, Graham Nash, Linda Ronstadt, Stephen Stills, and James Taylor. It topped the Billboard 200 album chart for two weeks, and spawned two hit singles, "Old Man", which peaked at #31 on the Billboard Hot 100, and "Heart of Gold", which reached #1. It was the best-selling album of 1972 in the United States.


 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.  


Tracklist:

 01 - Out On The Weekend
 02 - Harvest
 03 - A Man Needs A Maid
 04 - Heart Of Gold
 05 - Are You Ready For The Country
 06 - Old Man
 07 - There's A World
 08 - Alabama
 09 - The Needle And The Damage Done
 10 - Words (Between The Lines Of Age)

 2014 Remaster