Neil Young- Harvest (1972)

Neil Young has changed a lot as an artist in the last fifty odd years, from folk to punk to whatever Crazy Horse are. Not all of his albums over that span of time have been great, but you can never write him off. There’s always a sense that, however rubbish his last couple of albums may have been, the next one could be awesome.

Harvest is from his earlier period, though, where he was more consistent. It’s not necessarily his best album but it’s probably his best known. And yes, there are a couple of rubbish filler songs (“Are You Ready for the Country” is pants, and the less said about the lyrics to “A Man Needs a Maid” the better. But the album as a whole is magnificent and “Harvest”, “The Needle and the Damage Done” and “Old Man” are songs that will always stay with me. 

I can generally do without the strings we get in places, but this is a triumphant example of his folk period.