Harvest
by Neil Young

From babyBlueSedan TOP 100 COMMENTER 03/26/2016 18:39 | #162685 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Addition to my previous comment: not only does this feel lazy but it feels like a retread. Alabama is basically Southern Man but less impactful and developed. Other songs try to hit the heights of After the Gold Rush and end up being nothing songs. Are You Ready For the Country is completely forgettable and the first two tracks are boring despite decent choruses. And I haven't even mentioned the two orchestral tracks yet. A Man Needs A Maid actually isn't terrible, but it's laughable and old fasioned. There's a World goes straight for the strings, feels 100% out of place without creating a striking contrast to the rest of the songs, and might be the worst song I've ever heard.

How this is often considered his best is beyond me. I don't hate the country vibe at all, but for whatever reason it waters down his aesthetic. Even the "classic" songs on here aren't worth saving. Heart of Gold is admittedly great but worse than half the tracks on his previous album, Old Man sounds insightful but really isn't, and The Needle And The Damage Down is the most sterile, emotionless song about losing friends to heroin I've ever heard. This type of thing was done much better on Tonight's the Night. I won't bemoan anyone for liking this, because it's not offensively bad, but holding this up as the pinnacle of the career of the man who made On the Beach and Tonight's the Night is ridiculous.

"Harvest" is Neil Young biggest commercial succes. The number one hit-single "Heart of Gold" is obviously one of the reasons why the album was so successful, but of course the album has a lot of other great tracks.

Generally the album is among Young's softest and most melodic, and songs like "Out on the Weekend", "Harvest" and "Old Man" are prototype songs showing Young's melodic country side - all three among the very of best of his early solo-recordings.

A couple of songs, "Alabama" and "Words", do have the harder rocking approach that Young would exploit further on later albums.

The two ballads "A Man Needs a Maid" and "There's a World" are arranged with pretty heavy orchestration, which some may like, but which personally is a bit of a shame, as the songs really don't need this.

"The Needle and the Damage Done" is an acoustic live-recording, so in a way you could describe the album as being somewhat heterogeneous. But with outstanding songs like "Heart of Gold", "Out on the Weekend", "Harvest" and "Old Man" the album will be a favourite among most Young fans

Personally I find, harvest, an overrated album. I think because of the success of the, heart of gold, single, this LP gets confused with being the best. It's nowhere near as good as, everybody knows this is nowhere, and, after the gold rush, but it's certainly not bad. Heart of gold, is the best track here, but there are other strong cuts in, old man, and, needle and the damage done. The two orchestral tracks though are dull, the kind of dreary drippiness that Neil Young is sometimes susceptible to. The rest is just kind of okay. Harvest, is not a bad album but it is not even in Young's top ten in my opinion.

This album is perfect in every way. Neil at his finest. Great album to throw on, make a drink and crash on the couch

First time listening to a Neil Young album. I liked the lyrics, but I'm not sure how I feel about his voice quite yet. Mostly music, but the string sections take a toll on a few songs. "Old Man" is very impressive.