The last Neil Young album you really cared about

Psychedelic Pill (2012) was great, and Le Noise (2010) was interesting and different (a bit on the short side for that sort of thing, though). But I'm not sure if he's done anything really, truly great (I mean masterpiece type great) for a while now....

 

Weld. Albums since then have had a few tracks of interest, but no one album I really care about. His shows are a different story - they seem in many ways to be getting stronger as he moves through life.

 

Yup

 

The Monsanto Years

 

Sleeps With Angels for me. Throw in the Complex Sessions promo/video but it's all been downhill since.

 

"Harvest".

 

Silver and Gold

 

Rust Never Sleeps

 

Lucky 13

Unplugged

 

The Monsanto Years

 

If I considered "really cared about" to be the same as "which albums would I re-purchase if my house burnt down" then I would say Rust Never Sleeps. But that's only if I stick to what I consider absolutely essential albums. Eventually I'd probably end up re-purchasing Freedom, Ragged Glory, and Sleeps With Angels.

 

I'm probably in minority, but I really liked Greendale in all its manifestations.

 

I guess "Le Noise". I liked everything I heard from "Americana" but I didn't buy it. My wife bought "Letter Home" but I haven't heard it or "Storytone". Didn't like "Pill", listened to "Monsanto" once online and feel that's enough for now.

Me too, but I've liked other stuff since. I even thought "Fork in the Road" was a lot of fun.

 

Acoustic Storytone Psychedelic Pill

 

Greendale. Someone mentioned Bandit the other day and I put the album on while painting the house. The time, and paint, flew as I listened intently. A fantastic album and story.

I haven't heard Monsanto yet. I guess I should.

 

Since the question is in the past tense, I'll say Greendale. I haven't listened to it in years though. Otherwise, either Ragged Glory or Harvest Moon.

 

Prairie Wind for me,love the Heart Of Gold DVD too.

 

By release date: Neil Young & The International Harvesters - A Treasure (2011, recorded 1985)
By recording date: Mirror Ball (1995)

 

Landing on Water.
The weirder Neil is the more I like his work.

 

Live Rust is the last thing I listen to regularly. Every couple of years I'll play the Trans era dvd.

 

Live Rust

 

Much of his recent work has done very little for me, but I do really like Psychedelic Pill. The Le Noise album was OK, although I really loved how he performed the material in concert. Very visceral. Before these releases, Chrome Dreams II was pretty good (the show I saw during this time remains my favorite Neil concert) and I think Sleeps with Angels might be one of his last great works.

 

Ya man, there's always at least one classic on every album. And Monsanto Years has a lot more than that, love it.

 

I have been meaning to check out Psychedelic Pill and Le Noise.

The last album I liked anything from was Chrome Dreams II (Ordinary People)... The last one I really loved was Ragged Glory.

 

The Monsanto Years

I’ve learned it’s a mistake to write off anything Neil Young does, and I’m in it for the duration. Even when an album is fatally flawed for various reasons (and both A Letter Home and Monsanto qualify in spades), there’s almost always something to redeem it — often an incredible series of live performance , like the ones that NY & the Promise of the Real have been delivering. The most astounding example to me was the International Harvesters tour that followed the stiff, tepid Old Ways. Unflippingbelievable.

BTW, to the extent that these “When Did You Stop Caring About or Paying Attention To or Giving a S*%t About” threads have a built-in assumption that the artist in question is washed-up and generally understood to have become a big horrible sad disappointment to us fat-ass lazy bastard listeners. I really resent them. There’s way too many disillusionment prOn threads lately.