Neil Young's Harvest starts off already hitting its stride with "Out on the Weekend," followed by "Harvest," two strange, slow country ballads with thumping heartbeats, then moves on to the lush orchestral tune "A Man Needs a Maid" before reaching a climax with the tearjerking acoustic anthem "Heart of Gold." On the B-side, Young really sets the woods on fire with a series of searing rock songs including "Alabama" and "Words (Between the Lines of Age)," the latter of which mixes angry electric guitar with unconventional time signatures to bring the album to an epic close. All throughout, Young's lyrics are melancholic, political, poetic and earthy, and his playing deliberate and masterful. The lore behind this album includes the true story of bassist Tim Drummond being pulled into Young's Saturday night Nashville session off the street, overdubs by Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor made after a taping of The Johnny Cash Show, and electrified recordings done out of Neil's barn in California; Young even plucked one outstanding track, "The Needle and the Damage Done," from a UCLA live set. But there's nothing amateur about any of these songs: the album is proof-positive of Neil Young's seasoned genius as well as his folk credentials. Harvest sees the singer-songwriter stringing together masterpiece after masterpiece, flexing his range as a songwriter and musician through country, folk, and true rock and roll. 

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