Top 10 Neil Young Albums Of All Time

Photo: Ross from Hamilton, ON, Canada / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

There are many rock and roll artists who have had great musical careers yet have released only a handful of albums. It pretty much makes composing a top 10 albums list for those artists impossible. One could never compile a top-10 albums list for bands like Guns N’ Roses, Cream, or any other band that made their mark on history with only a few albums. Neil Young is a brilliant artist and perhaps one of the most musically prolific composers of all time.

Releasing such an abundant body of work makes creating a top 10 list just as difficult for the opposite reason. There are just so many great Neil Young albums; how does one choose only ten? Hands down, Neil Young has been one of the most consistent artists of all time in releasing albums through the decades.

Furthermore, his work has always been a reflection of and response to the social and political issues of the periods in which he released his records. There have been times when he would deliver albums based on a certain musical style in a sort of quasi-tribute to that particular musical genre (This Notes for You). However, for the most part and especially from a lyrical standpoint, his records always delivered genuine opinions about the state of society.

Neil Young released his first album, titled Neil Young, in January of 1969, when he was only twenty-three years old. However, his first solo album was not the first time Neil Young’s voice had been heard on a major label. From 1966 to 1968, Neil Young had been a member of the band Buffalo Springfield. A much-loved group that had released three great records. Those albums were filled with classic songs written by Neil Young, Stephen Stills, and Richie Furay. Most musicians would have been happy to enjoy a career based just on the Buffalo Springfield output. Neil Young was just getting started.

Neil Young quickly followed up his 1969 debut album with the release of Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere less than five months later. It was also the first album he recorded with the band Crazy Horse that would serve as Neil Young’s backup band on and off throughout his career. Crazy Horse also released a couple of albums on their own. 1970 would prove to be the year that turned Neil Young into a household name, even for those not that musically aware. He released one of the landmark albums of his career, After the Gold Rush. That same year, he also joined up with Crosby, Stills & Nash to record the album Déjà Vu, which would go on to become one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. Neil Young would record on and off with Crosby Stills & Nash over the next couple of decades.

In 1972, Neil Young would release what would become perhaps the most successful album of his career. Neil Young’s album Harvest would yield such classic songs as “Heart of Gold,” Old Man,” and “The Needle and the Damage Done.” Harvest would become the biggest-selling album of the year in 1972. From 1966 to 1972, Neil Young had already celebrated what could be considered a rock-and-roll Hall of Fame career. Nonetheless, there was so much more to come. From 1969 to 2020, Neil Young has released forty-one solo albums. He has released solo albums in seven straight decades. That is pretty impressive. And that makes picking only ten pretty much impossible. But we did it anyway. Here is a list of 10 of our favorite Neil Young Albums.

# 10 – Living With War

We open up our top 10 Neil Young albums list with his great album Living With War. The album was released in 2006. Neil Young took hold of his 1960’s protest spirit and renewed it in his war against the George W Bush administration and their role in Iraq. It was a bold artistic statement at a time when most artists feared speaking out against the Bush administration. The only other artists to speak up as strongly as Neil Young were Bruce Springsteen, who would take a severe backlash from many of his fans for it.

# 9 – Psychedelic Pill

Six decades after the release of his first album, Neil Young was still turning out great rock and roll records filled with passionate performances, high-energy playing, and spirited songs. Neil Young’s album Psychedelic Pill was released in 2012. Neil Young recorded the album with Crazy Horse, thereby making it a Neil Young & Crazy Horse album. Psychedelic Pill was released as a two-disc set loaded with very intense long jams, such as the album’s opening track, “Driftin’ Back,” which clocked in at over 26 minutes.

# 8 – Harvest Moon

Neil Young’s Harvest Moon was released as the follow-up to his 1972 classic, Harvest. The Harvest Moon album was released in 1992. Neil Young recorded the album with his backup band, the Stray Gators. The album also included backing vocals by some of classic rock’s most iconic voices, such as James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, and Nicolette Larson. It was an album filled with beautiful, well-written songs such as “Harvest Moon,” “Old King,” “Unknown Legend,” and many more.

# 7 – Comes A Time

While Neil Young’s Comes A Time album may not always appear on other top-10 Neil Young albums lists, it most certainly makes ours. There was a warm simplicity to Neil Young’s Comes A Time album that very much echoed his first couple of albums. The album’s title cut was simply to die for, as well as the great song “Lotta Love,” which was later made into a huge hit by Nicolette Larson. Comes A Time was not Neil Young’s biggest-selling album, but its songs have stood the test of time. The album was released in 1977.

# 6 – Tonight’s the Night

For many Neil Young fans, his record Tonight’s The Night was a masterpiece. We won’t argue with that. This brilliant album was released in 1975. Tonight’s The Night is an album filled with much despair and a sense of loss. The death of Danny Whitten, who had been the guitarist in Crazy Horse, along with Neil Young’s friend Bruce Berry, looms largely over the entire record. The album’s title track is mesmerizing.

# 5 – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

As we enter the second half of this top 10 Neil Young albums list, we turn to some of Neil Young’s most legendary records. Starting off the second half is Neil Young’s sophomore album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. The album was released in 1969. It would become the first Neil Young and Crazy Horse album. The sound of Neil Young and Crazy Horse was presented to listeners immediately on the album’s first track, “Cinnamon Girl.” It would become one of Neil Young’s most iconic songs in his catalog. Other standout tracks from the record included “Cowgirl In The Sand,” “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere,” and “Down By The River.”

# 4 – Ragged Glory

Released in 1990, Ragged Glory is Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s loudest and angriest record. As passionate as the album was, it contained songs that rocked hard but were fueled by very addictive melodies and riffs. This was an album to roll down the window and drive down the freeway to, at volume 11. I witnessed the tour that followed the album during the Gulf War, and it was an incredible performance of musicians revitalizing that anti-war spirit while playing music that sounded like an all-star garage band. It was perfect!

# 3 – After The Gold Rush

As we close in on the number one spot on our top 10 Neil Young albums list, we take a look at some of the most important rock records of our time, starting with Neil Young’s amazing album After The Gold Rush. This incredible record was released in 1970. Want to know why this record was so incredible? Here is the track listing for the first four songs on the album. 1. Tell Me Why. 2. “After the Gold Rush, 3. “Only Love Can Break Your Heart” and 4. “Southern Man.” And that’s just to start the album.

# 2 – Harvest

If you looked through the rock albums collections of most rock fans in the early 1970s, I would argue that 99 out of every 100 rock collections you looked at would contain Neil Young’s Harvest album. Harvest was Neil Young’s greatest musical achievement. It was as genius as one could get in rock and roll. It’s an album that belongs in the same category as The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, The Who’s Who’s Next, and Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland. It is a work of art that defines the dark side of the early 1970s folk-rock singer-songwriter genre that Neil Young ruled.

Neil Young’s Harvest album featured multiple hit singles, including the songs “Heart of Gold” and “Old Man.” The album featured an amazing cast of musicians singing backup and contributing musical parts. These included David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills, Linda Ronstadt, and James Taylor. The album also featured the London Symphony Orchestra on one track

# 1 – Rust Never Sleeps

While we argued that Neil Young’s Harvest was his greatest musical achievement, we believe that Rust Never Sleeps was the album that defined the spirit of Neil Young and Crazy Horse more than any other record. It’s also the album that we have played more than any other Neil Young record in our collection. And if we are going to choose what we believe is the number-one Neil Young album, then we are going to go with the one we have wanted to listen to the most. We think that is, in essence, the best rubric to utilize in choosing a number one album from an artist that has released forty-one studio albums throughout his career. Hey Hey, what can I say?

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Updated July 8 2026