The Best Neil Young Albums Ranked

hey it's mazzy here and i'm going to rank neil young's records i selected i narrowed it down to 13 of my very favorite neil young records and i'm going to rank them in order from 13 to 1. first generation neil young fan which means i grew up with these records i got into neil because i was a big fan of the buffalo springfield on those a couple of albums three two and a quarter whatever two and a half albums um and of course when he joined crosby chosen as to add in young because they needed another instrumentalist and worked on that second album by them but um i narrowed it down and i'm going to show you my favorites and please chime in again these are my favorites so they're going to come from my point of view and yes i'm calling it the best albums narrowed down ranked in order from 13 to 1. from my point of view because you're watching my video my opinion and i'd love to hear your opinions and if it's different that's totally fine first you know for those of you i think a lot of people are into new young neil young has an extensive massive catalog that's overwhelming he's doing the archive series records and i'm showing all vinyl here except for one uh in my top 13 is on cd because i do not have it on vinyl and i um i love these records if you're new to neil young there is a greatest hit cd and lp um that you might want to get with the hits but i think this would be a better choice for you cd final this came out in the 70s as a three record set what's great about it it has the best of of his work with the buffalo springfield with crobby stills nash and with neil young early solo i believe this came out around 1976 i think and this is really a great collection and what's nice about it too it it flows really well so i love this record and again just a little uh introduction if you're not into neil young and you want to get just kind of a taste this is good for his just through 70s period or not even through the 70s but he put out so many records so let's let's dive in i like the country stuff i like the folky stuff i like the acoustic stuff but i like the the crazy horse ragged stuff um if you can hear in the background while we're playing this and i don't know if i can get away with playing neil's music but this is not included in my list but i really like the soundtrack to dead man it's really kind of a just a jammy electric guitar ambient thing for the um the film by jim jarmusch uh dead man with johnny depp johnny depp does some sort of poetry narration on here but i love this i do have it on vinyl but we're just gonna we're digitalizing in the background here uh something that neil young is not a huge fan of so coming in number 13 this is from 1978 comes a time this is one of his more folky records melodic records and um it's got a lot of love a song that he plays on here but became a hit for nicolette larsen before she did one debut album she sang with neil young she's on warner brothers and she died of cancer at a young age but that's on here peace of mind comes a time is a beautiful acoustic song a human highway motorcycle mama's kind of a funky number and it ends with a one of my favorite songs but that he did not write he does fro four strong wins which was a song that um ian tyson wrote from neil uh ian and sylvia it's a beautiful beautiful canadian song love it it's on here number 13 neil young comes a time okay number 12 for me is rust never sleeps from 1979 with crazy horse noisy record great record it's better to fade out fade away hey hey my my out of the blue and into the black this is the story johnny rodden and rod and rod uh this is a good double bill with it it would have been good if i showed um live rust because these are just really great great records so love this record again noisy record uh promo i got at the time for my warner brothers friends in 1979 number 12 russ never sleeps new young and crazy horse continuing with my favorite new young records number 11 is la noise well noise doesn't get a lot of love and i know there's a lot of people that just never grasped on to this record but this is a record that daniel and wall produced is recorded in a house in this building and there's a lot of loops a lot of effects a lot of recording effects a lot of guitar effects a lot of pedals and it's just a brilliant record some good songs melodic songs deep down with all those effects of course daniel was the producer that really revitalized um emily harris with her album wrecking ball a personal favorite of mine and also willie nelson's teatro of course he's worked with you too and made some brilliant albums of him uh of his own so coming in at number 11 lanoise love this record this is a personal favorite of mine coming in number 10 we're in our top 10 now this is a loud record this is a noisy record this is a psychedelic record and this is psychedelic pill this is a heavy rep 3 record set heavy stock this record just is a jam record and just goes on with these really long uh majestic songs with new young and crazy horse and every time you get crazy horse together neil young you know there's going to be jamming and a lot of screeching guitar but i think this is a beautifully uh intense record but not intense like massive hitting all of your head it's got some sort of in a way mellow and loud at the same time if that makes any sense it's it's it's it's very um it's got a mood to it that's just really really beautiful so free record set psychedelic pill i'm a big fan of this record and uh what can i say coming in number 10 we're in our top 10 now neil young records okay number nine number nine number nine my ninth best neil young record from 1994 and i only have it on cd because it was just it was right in the midst of the whole cd thing so uh if there i think there are some vinyls in europe of this but uh it needs to come out in the neo-young archive and it is sleep was sleeps with angel sleep with angels it it's funny i was listening to this again the other day and i remember driving up the coast to california going up to mendocino or going up to an area called sea ranch which is about three to four hours from san francisco to get away on the weekends occasionally and i was blasting this record a couple of times around that time in 1994. this record is a wonderful record you know as i as i speak about it now this could be in my top three or four or five neo young records definitely i'm not quite sure why it's so low here but it's a friggin great record it's some of his best songwriting it's it's some of his best arrangements with crazy horse because it's not just a big old loud jammy affair that he did with like with live rust and rust never sleeps and even psychedelic pill great songs great arrangements it's a great just atmosphere to this album that's haunting uh opens up this uh song my heart with like a little it seems like a harpsichord intro which is just it's just i keep saying gorgeous and amazing and everything on these records but neil young this in a way is like his first solo album but not really and if i'm making no sense you gotta listen to this record play it over and over again put this in your car if you have a cd player in your car or however you you play your music it needs a vinyl pressing it's got to be a two record set obviously because it's a long record but coming in number nine sleeps with angels i think i'm talking about this album like it should be a top three record and maybe maybe it should be hmm i mean number eight in a way his uh sequel album harvest moon obviously somewhat of a sequel to harvest uh has that kind of feel produced by neil young and ben keith again and it is um arranged by jack nichi jack nichi did a lot of orchestration on the original harvest and it's worked with neil young over the years a lot 1992 originally this came out the vinyl has been reissued i think it's still available this is a beautiful album harvest moon is great from hank to hendrix war of man it's got a really wonderful natural beauty to it there's a song called natural beauty so that makes sense old king dreaming man gorgeous gorgeous record coming in at number nine harvest moon by amelia you kind of go i kind of go back and forth with the loudy noisy stuff and the melodic stuff because i like both you know he did a number of albums in the 80s and most of them i i skipped there's that period with on geffen records i don't think i picked any of those but um some people have you know fond memories of them some people can't stand them so coming in number eight tonight's the night now i remember this period when these records came out they didn't really get a lot of love everybody wanted harvest after harvest was so big that's what people wanted they liked that sound that's what put him over the top that's what put him in the number one spot or top ten spot and i think he's a little embarrassed by that he wasn't sure how to deal with it of course instead of following up with something very similar he he does these albums um a couple on on my top 10 here but tonight's tonight is a great uh record again co-produced by neil young and david briggs it's got tonight tonight um new mama albuquerque well another number fantastic record kind of a jammy record but a really really a good record neil young tonight's the night coming in number eight i almost didn't include this not that it's not a great album but i almost wanted to just do his proper albums that came out at the time but this album on the new on the archive series that's been coming out just people fall in love with this record when they hear it it's from massey hall 1971. of course there's a number of songs on here that would be on harvest that's part of the reason this wasn't released at the time because he was getting ready to put out harvest and so obviously you're not going to put a live album out prior to the studio version of it so this is an audio file a dream beautiful recording in canada beautiful record i highly recommend this record anybody who wants the acoustic sound mostly of neil young and that great ambient of massey hall this is highly recommended number five you know when someone has a hit album when you're when you're into a an artist like just really deeply entrenched there's certain people that just don't like the obvious hit album but i'm still including harvest a lot of people will listen to their number one album because it's most famous album it says hit uh with heart of gold 1972 i saw him around this time at the end of this video i'm going to try to stick on several uh photographs that i took at winterland in 1973 i think 72 or 73 i saw neil young at winterland and linda ronstadt opened up for him so i'm going to kind of like at the very end add those pictures on so you can kind of see what was going on but this is a it is a beautiful album co-produced with app by elliott mazer and of course it's got uh harvest a man needs a maid with a great uh orchestration arranged by jack nichi again heart of gold i ready for the country old man beautiful song that he wrote that he talks about in massey hall about when he bought his ranch up above uh in the mountains san mateo county just south of san francisco and he talks about the old man who lived on the property great great song needle and the damage done that is a live track uh from uh royce hall and uh alabama on here great album neil young harvest from 1972 number four you know harvest is probably the easier to listen to but this is an important album again this album turned off some people when it came up and number four uh for me is on the beach uh neil young there's there's great songs that he would you know perform live over the years like ambulance blues vampire blues on the beach revolution blues and of course it starts out with walk-on which is a kind of a fun song but what was he thinking here um i love this record i love this cover art neil young number four on my list of my favorite my best neil young records on the beach number four number three is neil young's debut and yes this is an original copy without his name on the cover first pressing didn't have his name second pressing says neil young so i got this when it came out because i had been a buffalo springfield fan this record in a way sounds like a buffalo springfield album it sounds like what neil was was actually doing in buffalo springfield so it's a little more pop it's a little more melodic at times it's a little more somewhat psychedelic neopsychedelic maybe but a gray record one of the best covers i think in his entire catalog this is number three it's got um a bunch of great songs and of course i used to always say it's got this handwriting that's been on his first few albums of lyrics and things it's really difficult to read even on vinyl but i love this record the loner is on here which was a great fm radio staple last trip to tulsa the old laughing lady string quartet from whiskey boot hill emperor of wyoming kind of an instrumental opening number on here but i love this record neil young's self-titled debut album number two number two this really changed things for neil young this is his second album with crazy horse everyone knows this is nowhere there are songs on here that he would do with crabby souls and nash and young inco including down by the river and cowgirl in the sand great long songs that fm stations would play the rock stations at the time these beautiful songs of course it opens up with this great wonderful uh single i mean it should have been a bigger hit but cinnamon girl what a what a great great song round and round is on here as i said down by the river i mean every song on here is a fantastic song it's a jammy song this is you know i wouldn't call it psychedelic but it's got that feel and just really beautiful songwriting so 70s that really mix just as the singer-songwriter thing was about to to really uh open up this is an electronic tour de force i just love this record i mean this could be his best record depending on you know where you're getting into neil young and and your kind of mood this is an amazing record this is a great stoner record too you know being in high school when this came out this is that type of record that just just was magnificent and it still is it holds up 50 years later plus this is an incredible record my second favorite neil young record at least today and then number one i think this is the perfect record this is the record that came out right before harvest i think this is the better album i think this is the better songs this is uh cohesive it's got this great cover photograph by joel bernstein and it's it's just a great record it's got tell me why the acoustic opening that opening track on here is just really well recorded after the gold rush i think this album actually has some of his best lyrics and for a young man to record this stuff in his early 20s it's just magnificent southern man is on here which is a great song creek fairy closes it out o lonesome me so it's got the rock and roll and country mix in here it's acoustic based that but i think it i think it holds much better than harvest even though i love harvest and that's the one that broke them and it's got a great pair of patched jeans so number one my number one is after the gold rush neil young what a great record this is 1970 incredible incredible record by neil young thanks for watching top 13 neil young records rated from my opinion from 13 to one with a few other uh things that you should probably pick up if you want to get into neil young thanks for watching add your comments mazzy loves you you

Channel: Norman Maslov

Views: 46,960

Keywords: record collection, vinyl community

Id: Iz0D97HTKyI

Length: 18min 54sec (1134 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021