Neil Young is one of rock’s most brilliant, confounding, defiant and frustrating artists.
His long career as a solo act — which began in 1968 after he left Buffalo Springfield — is defined by records that are alternately fascinating and infuriating. The list below of Neil Young Albums Ranked shows that his roughly three dozen LPs can be neatly divided between records you should hear and records you can probably skip.
From the start, Young has never played by the rules. A huge chunk of his albums has been pieced together from leftover sessions. Some of his best and most defining works (including the landmark After the Gold Rush) started life as something entirely different. More than any other artist in history, except for maybe Bob Dylan, Young has nearly single-handedly killed his career on more than one occasion before rebounding with an era-encapsulating work.
READ MORE: Neil Young Live Albums Ranked
Throughout his career, Young has remained one of rock’s most influential artists, a guitar icon who also creates breathtakingly beautiful and stripped-down music. Whether working on his own, with his longtime backing band Crazy Horse, or with any of the various pickup groups assembled over the years, Young has been a singular, often polarizing artist.
He’s restless, aggravating, trailblazing and baffling. He’s never followed trends, and his extensive, diverse discography over the past four decades and counting is worth celebrating, no matter the context. (Note: Studio albums released as part of Young’s Archives series — like Hitchhiker and Chrome Dreams — have been left off the list.)
Neil Young Albums Ranked
He’s one of rock’s most brilliant, confounding, defiant and frustrating artists.
Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci
