MUSIC REVIEW
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Neil Young's Latest Redefines Compilations
10-disc set bursting with music, photos, video
By Matt Cantor
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Posted Jun 17, 09 2:53 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Neil Young leaves other retrospectives in the dust with a look back at his career that spans 10 Blu-ray discs or DVDs, or eight CDs, the Chicago Tribune reports. Neil Young Archives: Volume 1, 1963-1972 contains everything from high school band recordings through Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to his first solo work, a 20-years-in-the-making collection that's "gone on to usurp even Chinese Democracy as the ultimate lost-album punchline," writes Stuart Berman of Pitchfork.
Fans have their pick of three formats—with different bells, whistles, and price tags—but any choice "makes the same convincing case," writes Berman. That these years "were marked by a rapid maturation and a series of successful stylistic reinventions that rivaled the Beatles." But Volume I isn't "the vault-clearing revelation that fans may have been hoping for. Of the advertised 43 unreleased tracks, most take the form of alternate mixes or live versions of familiar material," making its remastering the album's "real selling point."