Neil Young Archives Vol. II (10 dischi)

Avevo preordinato il cofanetto circa un mese prima della sua pubblicazione. È arrivato il 5 marzo, giorno della pubblicazione ufficiale e ho risparmiato circa 30 euro con la prenotazione al prezzo minimo. La musica di Neil Young è bellissima e questo cofanetto imperdibile.

3 persone l'hanno trovato utile

stefano

GRANDE BISONTE

Recensito in Italia il 16 settembre 2021

ho già il Vol.1 degli archivi e ovviamente ho acquistato anche il Vol.2. Tanti bei pezzi d'archivio e non, infatti ci sono quasi x intero i 3 album principali di questo periodo, Tonights, Zuma e On the beach che ovviamente già posseggo. l'unica pecca è la confezione, un pò troppo spartana, si poteva fare di +, visto che non costa 2 soldi. I CD sono Vinile replica e sono carini.

Versione un po’ striminzita

Maurizio Consonni

Recensito in Italia il 12 marzo 2021

5 stelle per il valore assoluto dei 10 cd, in realtà 3 cd già presenti sul mercato in altre versioni. Ho mancato la prima versione di Archives vol.2, purtroppo, è questa ha un packaging davvero scarno. Peccato, ma comunque da avere assolutamente.

Una persona l'ha trovato utile

Delusissimo dal rapporto qualità/prezzo

Pen Name

Recensito in Italia il 9 marzo 2021

La prima stampa di Archives Vol.2 era uscita a fine 2020, in versione super-deluxe limitatissima, con una scatola molto grande, un bel librone e ovviamente i 10 CD che compongono la collezione. Messa in vendita per circa €225, è andata esaurita il giorno stesso in cui è uscita.
Questa è l'edizione normale che viene venduta tra i €120 e i €140, un prezzo comunque molto alto, per un confanetto che definire "per poveracci" è fargli un complimento.
Il cofanetto è tutto di cartone. I 10 CD sono impacchettati individualmente in confezioni digipack di qualità discutibile. È presente un misero libricino di una ventina di pagine, anche questo stampato su carta che pare riciclata, e che comprende semplicemente l'elenco delle canzoni e i crediti di chi suona su ogni brano. Assurdo che non vengano sprecate quattro parole per dare un minimo di contesto agli album, alle registrazioni, per spiegare il contenuto del cofanetto, fare un minimo di storia. Non c'è una foto, una nota di copertina, una spiegazione...niente. Più scarno di questo non so se si poteva fare...forse mettendo i 10 CD dentro una busta di plastica con "Archives 2" scritto col pennarello nero...

Paragonato ai recenti box che la Columbia ha pubblicato per Bob Dylan, venduti più o meno allo stesso prezzo, questo sembra uno scherzo di cattivo gusto. Pensiamo pure che di 3 dei 10 CD qui offerti (Homegrown, Live at Roxy e Tuscaloosa) se ne poteva fare tranquillamente a meno perché già usciti di recente (e ancora in stampa) e che quindi si poteva fare un box di 7 CD, allo stesso prezzo ma fatto decentemente.

Mi spiace perché io adoro Neil Young e odio che si lamenta del packaging, delle confezioni, dei gadget ecc, come se per comprare musica ci volesse l'incentivo del "regaletto", come il giocattolo nel menù per bambini del fast-food. Però è anche giusto che se uno spende €120 per qualcosa, che è una cifra altissima per un prodotto musicale di questi tempi, quantomeno ci sia lo sforzo di offrire un prodotto che quei soldi li valga. Questo assolutamente non li vale.

25 persone l'hanno trovato utile

carlo barlassina

in linea con il primo

Recensito in Italia il 25 marzo 2021

Un'ottima raccolta, curata come la precedente, con più versioni dello stesso brano. Peccato che avevo già acquistato il cd di homegrown

Una persona l'ha trovato utile

augusto

Recensito in Italia il 29 agosto 2021

Frank Suede

Excellent!

Recensito in Italia il 18 aprile 2021

Excellent!

WALTER DOMENICHINI

Da ascoltare

Recensito in Italia il 19 aprile 2021

Molto bello

Traduci tutte le recensioni in Italiano

Le recensioni migliori da altri paesi

Mike Stapleton

Bit of a swiz?

Recensito nel Regno Unito il 8 marzo 2021

Well Archives 2 arrived and I'm thinking it's a bit of a con! I found out I could have got the big box new on E-bay for £350 - £450. Thank god I didn't!! This one's a small box just big enough for the 10 CDs and a very small booklet.

CD 1 Everybody's Alone (1972): 11 unreleased live and studio tracks; 1 track from Time Fades Away.

CD2 Tuscaloosa (1973): 11 tracks already released as a CD of the same name in June 2019. (Swiz!)

CD3 Tonight the Night (1973): 3 unreleased tracks; 9 tracks from the 1975 album of the same name.

CD4 Roxy - Tonight's the Night Live (1973): 1 unreleased track; 10 tracks from the CD of the same name from 2018. (Swiz!)

CD 5 Walk On (1973 - 1974): 3 unreleased tracks; 1 from Decade; 7 from On The Beach; 1 from Tonight's the Night.

CD6 The Old Homestead (1974) 17 unreleased tracks; 1 from Hawks and Doves; 1 from Decade.

CD7 Homegrown (1974 - 1975) 10 unreleased tracks; 1 from Hawks and Doves; 1 from Decade.

CD8 Dume (1975) 8 unreleased tracks and 8 from Zuma (1975).

CD9 Look out for my Love (1975 -1976) 10 unreleased tracks; 1 from Stars & Bars; 2 from Comes A Time; 2 from Long May You Run.

CD10 Odeon Budocan (1976) 10 unreleased tracks mostly live.

The 'unreleased' songs are described either as Previously unreleased original version, Previously unreleased version, Previously unreleased song or Previously unreleased mix.

Actually looking at now there's more unreleased stuff than I thought. I was a bit pissed off that two of the CDs were as already released. But one of the others Homegrown was also a released title from last June. However according to the booklet 10 tracks are previously unreleased - which must mean that although the track listing is identical the songs aren't. But it says 'unreleased song' so how is it the same titles are on the earlier release? Mystery.

45 persone l'hanno trovato utile

Derick Holcombe

THE CONTENTS

Recensito nel Regno Unito il 5 marzo 2021

I have just received today this box of lovely music, some of which I know some of which I don't and I am looking forward to listening to it all, probably for some while yet. I have given it four stars because I already have chunks of it bought separately.

This review is not about the music though, its about the packaging, so for anyone who does not obsess about such things don't waste time reading further.

The problem for me is the cds are in the wrong shaped jackets! Disgraceful eh, how could the old curmudgeon do this to us. We wait years for the music and when it does finally arrive I am still complaining!

I have in my collection pretty much all of Neil Young cd releases. Some are in the old plastic cases (eg the Geffen albums); one is in a cd sized square paper cases (the live Blue Notes album); several in the slightly larger square "japanese mini lp cd" size (eg On The Beach), plus everything released over the last few years, (eg Goldrush 50th, Down In The Rustbucket) including the single discs in this Archives Vol 2 set (eg Tuscaloosa, Homegrown). Finally there is the third cardboard package of replica sleeves of the early Reprise albums but in rectangular not square shape (the first four albums remaster box, plus A Treasure and all the live single disc releases from the first archives set). In a word a MESS to a slightly obsessive saddo like me who wants all the discs to be in a regular and uniform format and not going up and down like a mountain range.

When the 5-8 and the 8.5-12 box sets came out and the cds were in japanese style sized cases, as have been all the single releases over the last couple of years or so, I assumed finally Neil and Reprise had settled on that. But no, for some reason Archive Vol 2 has reverted to the cardboard rectangles of the 1-4 box and maybe of Archive 1 (which I never got as I had already bought so much of it separately).

None of this should detract from the music, which is wonderful and really is what it's all about. But for us saddos who get wrapped up in the packaging this box is a disappointment

19 persone l'hanno trovato utile

Mitch

A review from someone shouldering the curse of blind loyalty

Recensito nel Regno Unito il 6 marzo 2021

I have been waiting for this to be released for what seems like forever. Yes if you are an avid die hard fan who has the same kind of blind loyalty that I appear to be cursed with then you will have 3 out of the 10 discs already, which some might say is cheeky BUT the wealth of unreleased quality material here is just staggering. Far too many songs left me shouting "how and why did this land up on the cutting room floor?"

I had heard all of it before I got my hands on the music only version released yesterday, so I am familiar with the whole box. The box itself sits the 10 cardboard slightly oversized cds in and has a book/leaflet with track notes and there is also a poster. Each of the sleeves has an excellent picture on it from the particular time period. I love the alternative covers that mirror the sleeves of the Ditch trilogy.

In the 70s Young was peerless, I am a tad biased because Tonights the night is my favourite album by the man. But the whole set was recorded in 4 years, other artists can spend a whole life time and not produce material that's even a fraction as good as this.

£120? I am in!

19 persone l'hanno trovato utile

TCH

Peak period Shakey and that means as good as it gets for 70's singer-songwriters....

Recensito nel Regno Unito il 12 marzo 2021

This is the slightly infamous re-release of the limited edition Archives II box-set which was going for £250 before Christmas and caused quite some controversy. For perhaps the 1st time in his life Young has listened to his audience and released a cheaper, but still pricey, version of the original set but minus the huge book in the original version (but who really cares about a book you'll look at/read once and then never look at again?).

So its 10CDs.... many well short of the full CD playing time (of 80 mins) and notoriously 3CDs that have been released before and will already be owned by anyone remotely interested in purchasing this set. So is it worth buying? Absolutely with bells on! I was ambivalent about the 1st Archives I box-set in 2009 and got into an argument or two about it.... it simply contained too much juvenilia of the listen once and forget type and relatively little "interesting" new stuff (I downloaded those songs from Amazon.... 13 songs if I remember rightly). This set however contains over 60 (!) songs in genuinely interesting new versions or totally unheard before (12 of those) so again it appears to my amazement that Neil might have listened to the criticism of the 1st Archives set?

Therefore there is a tonne of genuinely unheard stuff including absolute gems like "Good Christians On The Shore" (post Harvest waltz time melancholy), "Homefires" (solo acoustic imminent divorce melancholy), "Frozen Man" (just deep in the ditch melancholy), "Love/Art Blues" (why am I doing this melancholy), "Daughters" (what have I done melancholy) and so on and so on. This of course is the 'ditch' peak period Young where he was pouring his heart out due to his life spiralling (Danny Whitten's OD, his relationship with Carrie Snodgress deteriorating, drugs inevitably, ego battles with CSN and yes, artistic angst). A terrible time for Young no doubt but it created his best art and he hasn't come close since and this is importantly before he became a Van Morrison-esque curmudgeon and consequently his (flawed) humanity shines through before he became calcified by his fame and consequent ego.

Criticisms? Very few apart from the price likely still deterring many. There are still songs on the cutting room floor like 1974's "Barefoot Floors" which is an acoustic gem which is absent here (apparently it turned up a few days ago on Young's rather rickety streaming site)..... simply bizarre not to include it as this will be the last word on Young's mid-70s work. Also on the final CD#10 "Ocean/Budokan" there are portions of two gigs, both sound great, one in the UK and one in Japan.... why not include both in full and drop one or two of the earlier CDs which had already been released? Such is the capriciousness of Neil Young, it will always be almost but not quite (hence the 4-star review). But overall this is an absolute must for anyone interested in arguably the second best singer/songwriter of the rock era.

9 persone l'hanno trovato utile

Joe Roberts

Les archives de Neil, la suite (enfin!!!!)

Recensito in Francia il 5 marzo 2021

Ca y est, la voilà enfin cette suite tant attendue des archives de Neil, 12 ans après un 1er volume qui couvrait les 1ères années de sa carrière de 1963 à 1972 (8 CD). Là, nous avons 10 CD sur la période 1972-1976, période hyper-créative pour Neil et en même temps, très compliquée. Sa vie de famille est instable malgré la rencontre avec l'actrice Carrie Snodgress, qui le quitte en 1975. Il est totalement désemparé après cette douloureuse rupture (l'album gardé dans les tiroirs, Homegrown, CD 7, lui est dédié), son fils souffre de handicap et il a en plus de graves problèmes de santé avec des crises d'épilepsie qui peuvent le paralyser. Neil est enfin accro à la cocaïne, ce qui achève de l'enfoncer toujours plus profond...Beaucoup de choses à supporter pour un seul homme. Malgré le succès phénoménal de Harvest en 1972, c'est un artiste qui doute et qui vit mal ce succès et la notoriété qui va avec. Si on ajoute la mort de Danny Whitten, guitariste de Crazy Horse, la même année et celle de son roadie Bruce Berry quelques mois plus tard (cité dans Tonight's the night), on comprend mieux la tonalité très sombre de ces enregistrements, et même temps absolument fascinante. La tournée qui a suivi Harvest, sortie en album sous le titre de Time fades away, a été retiré très vite du catalogue de la maison de disques et a circulé très longtemps de façon non officielle avant sa sortie autorisée il y a peu. On était en effet très loin des ambiances country rock de Harvest et le public était plus que décontenancé par ces chansons toutes inédites à l'époque, un chanteur visiblement en perdition. Pourtant, la dépression dont souffre Neil nourrit sa créativité et lui permet d'écrire des chansons fabuleuses. La grosse totalité de celles qu'on peut entendre dans ce coffret sont inédites. Mais Neil a fait sortir certains de ces enregistrements depuis quelques années: c'est le cas de Tuscaloosa (CD2), live de 1973, de Homegrown, ce fameux album resté dans un tiroir et sorti officiellement l'année dernière ainsi que du live au Roxy de la tournée Tonight's the night. Alors, oui c'est vrai, ce coffret est cher pour au final 7 CD inédits, voire très cher et là on peut se dire que Neil pousse le bouchon un peu loin. Le reste est un ensemble de morceaux classés chronologiquement dans lesquels on explore les différents albums de cette période (5 je crois publiés entre 1973 et 1975 et qui ne font pas du remplissage): Mellow my mind, World on a string, The Loner, Powderfinger ou encore Cortez the killer, Old Man (live sur le CD 10), voilà quelques uns des chefs d'oeuvre qu'on peut écouter dans ce coffret. On y croise aussi la compatriote et amie Joni Mitchell le temps d'un duo sur Raised on robbery (j'adore cette artiste!) sur le CD3 et bien sûr les "complices" Crosby, Stills et Nash en studio et en concert lors de la tournée à 4 de 1974 sur 2 titres à Chicago (CD 6), une tournée qui laissera franchement un goût amer au public comme aux musiciens possédant des ego surdimensionnés, perdus dans les excès, une tournée des stades qui sera un vrai gâchis et dont les 4 auront du mal à se remettre...Le coffret s'achève avec le CD 10 par un live de 1976 enregistré pour la partie acoustique à l'Hammersmith Odeon de Londres et pour l'électrique au Budokan de Tokyo (public malheureusement discret, peut-être un enregistrement soundboard?): quelle tournée, bon sang! Je possède dans ma collection le concert au Pavillon de Paris le 23 mars 1976 et il est encore bien meilleur que ce montage (pourquoi pas pour une prochaine sortie officielle qui sait?). Quand on a fini d'écouter ces CD, au son excellent, on n'a qu'une envie: s'il vous plaît, Mr Young, n'attendez pas 12 ans pour nous proposer le volume 3!!! C'est un indispensable pour les fans du Loner, qui ne prend pas sa fonction d'archiviste à la plaisanterie (voir le poster qui est glissé dans le coffret, toutes les chansons sont classées comme des dossiers!), il a une vraie volonté d'exhaustivité et de sortir une oeuvre durable et passionnante. Épuisé et lassé par l'échec de la tournée en duo avec Stills, Neil partira se réfugier en Californie après la tournée 76, voulant retrouver un semblant d'anonymat et formera un groupe dans lequel il se glissera, The Ducks. Il donnera des concerts impromptus à Californie du Sud en 1977 pour un petit public de chanceux/chanceuses. Mais c'est déjà une autre histoire et elle fera sans doute l'objet du prochain coffret, on a hâte!

35 persone l'hanno trovato utile