ARCHIVES VOL. II: 1972-1976 (DELUXE EDITION)

NEIL YOUNG is an international treasure. Perhaps he should adopt Frank Sinatra’s signature mantra “I did it my way” as his own, because his artistic vision is, frankly, unparalleled in the history of popular music. Neil always does what he wants, releases new and archival material whenever he wants, and often chooses to lay it all down in whatever genre strikes his fancy. Even better, he takes great pains to ensure we the listeners get to hear all of it in the highest resolution possible.

And that brings us, a truly towering box set of epic proportions, both physically and aurally speaking. The first sequel to 2009’s five-star collection, —available on CD and hi-res digital and not via a Blu-ray or DVD option, as with —illuminates one of Neil’s most fertile creative periods, and it raises the stars’n bars standard in terms of documentation, thoroughness, and overall listening enjoyment. In short, is the visceral pinnacle of archival presentation that every artist and label should follow if they want to preserve, protect, and proffer our collective audio history to the nth degree.