#2383

donā€™t think anyone voted for Madnedd

#2384

Iā€™m not a Neil Young completist (Iā€™m strangely more familiar with more of his 90s and 00s output, but working on it), but thereā€™s something really special in a lot of his music for me - thereā€™s so much emotion in his guitar playing, and thereā€™s this combined sense of doom and humanity running through everything. Itā€™s the kind of music that can instantly change the tone of a room.

Here are five great ā€œrecentā€ ones:

Ramada Inn

Iā€™m the Ocean (backed by Pearl Jam)

Natural Beauty

Be the Rain

Fuckinā€™ Up (live with Pearl Jam)

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#2385

Have a real soft spot for this one:

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#2386

Same here. I love that chorus, and of course how genuinely and openly pissed off he was at the Bush administration. Iā€™ll always love him too for basically writing a late career concept album about saving the environment. He doesnā€™t give a shit and itā€™s great, I wish more bands would be like him.

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#2387

I was surprised by how well he did in the original thread too. Iā€™ve got a couple of mates who are really, really into him though, so Iā€™m used to it.

If you did want to give him a go, Harvest is very easy to get into and lovely. But I think heā€™s one of those people who grabs some and leaves others cold.

#2388

Itā€™s a very patchy work but I admire the sentiment and itā€™s part of why I love Neil.

I was looking at his discography there and I havenā€™t listened to an album of new material of his in full since Psychedelic Pill. I might have to do some revision.

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#2389

Just posting because itā€™s late, and I canā€™t resist, and I love talking about Neil Young songs.

Ramada Innā€™s already up there and is possibly my favourite long Neil Young song of all time, and is just one you can go back to.

Ambulance Blues - proper skagged-out hippy acoustic rambling lament song, and kinda does the same thing as RA, where it shifts in and out of focus as the song progresses, albeit without guitar bits inbetween.

Birds - just the saddest, most heartbreaking, all-round loveliest break-up song this side of ABBA.

Powderfinger - might be my favourite NY song of all, albeit in a way that itā€™s fully only grown on me relatively recently. Thereā€™s something about the way the tension gradually raises over the course, and tells a complete filmic story without anything particularly specific lyrically, by the time you get to the last verse, you genuinely just empathise with this guy. Always listen to it twice in a row.

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#2390

Thanks! Also thanks to everyone else posting recommendations, but alas, Iā€™ve tried listening to a half-dozen or more NY albums and found nothing to enjoy*. He really does leave me cold and Iā€™m fine with that.

*apart from Dead Man OST

If Iā€™m being honest, the vast majority of ā€˜canonā€™ artists either leave me cold or actively irritate me; part of the reason I forgot to vote was because I struggled to come up with 20 artists from the list I had a proper positive opinion about, let alone those I cared enough about to rank. Thatā€™s not to insult everyone else here, because people should like the music they like, it merely is what it is. This ranking and the individual threads are still very interesting even if Iā€™m not fussed about the artists involved. Thank you for your sterling efforts @anon19035908 - looking forward to the next batch :slight_smile:

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#2391

When the backing vocals come in on the last chorus of powderfinger itā€™s one of the most cathartic moments of music Iā€™ve heard

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#2392

Getting shivers just thinking about it, thatā€™s the sign of a truly great song

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#2393

Itā€™s just a song where as soon as I hear the strummed chord and ā€œlook out mamaā€¦ā€, I canā€™t stop listening to it.

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#2394

Iā€™m like that with Nick Cave (though @SunnyB has made me a Nick Cave playlist and I will give it a listen), so Iā€™ve got that to work with, where I can see that people love it, and it even overlaps with lots of stuff that I love, but itā€™s just not something thatā€™s ever drawn me in.

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#2395

On late period Neil - this is one of his most beautiful songs, imo. Itā€™s great to listen to on headphones late at night.

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#2396
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#2397

GF was watching ā€˜Homelandā€™ last night and there was a cover of ā€˜Powderfingerā€™ on the soundtrack. Fell over myself babbling to my GF about how much I loved the song, was nearly tearing up.

My GF now thinks Iā€™m mad no doubt but I donā€™t care, I love ā€˜Powderfingerā€™. Still remember writing out all the lyrics and learning the song by heart when I was thirteen. That song fucked me up then and now.

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#2398
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#2399

wish Iā€™d got into it when I was 13 instead of listening to the Marshall Mathers album really loud forever.

#2400

Love this. My dad is as big a Neil Young fan as they come (think he owns everything heā€™s ever released physically) so heā€™s been a big influence on my music too. A staggering back catalogue and agree with comments elsewhere that he seems to have aged better than he had any right to in terms of recent output and live performances.

Anyway, I recently tried to do my 12 track fave Neil playlist. Tough to narrow down but I landed on this selection:

After the Gold Rush
Out on the Weekend
Roll Another Number for the Road
Borrowed Tune
Like a Hurricane
My, My, Hey Hey (out of the blue)
Everybody knows this is nowhere
Powderfinger
Helpless
Ramada Inn
Barstool Blues
Love and Only Love

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#2401

Radiohead were my 19 pointer. Nirvana were my 20 because they are the very best and should have been number 1.

I think the rest of them are pretty arbitrary in terms of ordering

Nirvana
Radiohead
PJ Harvey
Rage Against The Machine
Talking Heads
Prince
Blur
Beastie Boys
David Bowie
Neil Young
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Pink Floyd
The Beatles
Public Enemy
Pixies
Madonna
Bob Dylan

1 Like
#2402

I had 8 of these on my list

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