This is the first volume of the Neil Young Archives series of box sets, produced by Neil Young himself. This series is the definitive, comprehensive, chronological survey of his entire body of work. Volume I covers the period from his earliest recordings with the Squires in Winnipeg, 1963, through to his classic 1972 album, Harvest and beyond, including studio and live tracks with the legendary Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and Neil Young with Crazy Horse. This CD edition contains 8 discs, each in its own custom sleeve, with a total of 116 tracks, all presented in HDCD quality sound, and featuring over 40 previously unreleased songs, versions, mixes, or rare tracks. This edition is housed in a custom disc keeper holding the 8 sleeved discs, a descriptive booklet, and a foldout archives poster.

2009-06-27 -- 1/5:: Rock's Number One Egomaniac Strikes Again
Neil Young has always had this delusional vision of himself as an iconic figure in Rock music. He's most definitely not. He's a sometimes very good song writer but certainly not a great one. Taken as a whole, must of his writing is mediocre, boring drivel. As far as his musicianship is concerned, he's essentially an unimaginative, technically challenged, sloppy hack as a guitar player. In his own mind, he seems to think he's another Jimi Hendrix. What a joke. He's very conveniently forgotten that all of the great guitar leads and licks in Buffalo Springfield and CSNY were created and played by Stephen Stills, who truly is a great guitarist. This bloated box set is just the latest and most expensive evidence of Neil Young's extreme hubris. At his core, the guy's a clown. Imagine having half the talent and twice the ego of the egomaniacal David Crosby. That ain't easy to do.

2009-06-25 -- 3/5:: Eh.
I didn't need this but I bought it anyway. I'm sort of glad I did. It was worth it to listen to the nuggets, and the remastered songs sound fantastic.

I had the glue problem also. I think the whole packaging concept is unnecessary in general and should have been a little more eco-friendly (less paper, more digital content).

I'm not sure why we have to get Massey Hall & the Fillmore again either, especially with the incredible shows from this era I've heard elsewhere and suspect exist in better form in the vault. If not, oh well - 6 CDs it is.

So I have this, and it's okay. But I am a little miffed at the way it turned out. What "might have been" will always be a dream, I guess.

By the way people, for the hundred thousandth time: there will never be a Time Fades Away CD remaster or release unless it's a straight-to-digital rip because there was no master pressing, the songs were recorded live to the truck and no master ever existed. So if you want it digitally, rip it from a pristine vinyl copy somehow. Or just get the boots from the tour.

2009-06-20 -- 5/5:: cds were after thought
well i bought the cds because of economics
Neil didnt want to release the cd version i think it was a record company thing
the music is great and an over view of someones career is going to have alot of released material.
I will have a blu ray player before volume two comes out.
this was suppose to be a visual release and to get that u have to have the dvd or blue ray editions.
the set list was available before it was released so why is there so much bitching.
i had some issues with glue
Reprise replaced within a week
if u like neil you should love this if you dont then dont buy it

Neil bring on volume two will have bluray ready !

2009-06-19 -- 3/5:: C'mon... we knew this was coming
Okay, so I will add to the very appropriate grumbles: I already own Massey Hall/Fillmore, not enough treasures, short discs, and appallingly lame booklet (Neil and production team: the poster went out with LP's ages ago)... So, I guess the question is, should any of us be surprised? No. We knew that the CD release was absolutely a compromise of Neil's ultimate dream and in a sense this package reflects his shrugging, saying "fine, whatever" to the record company and out pops this set.

I was deadset against buying it. Walked into my local music store with a stack of CD's to trade (including my old Beatles, in anticipation of their upcoming "new and improved"). I was given $60 in store credit and picked up Archives for $20. Now if I had just thought to bring Massey Hall, Fillmore and Decade, I might have gotten the whole shooting match for free.

Let's hope that when Archive Volume 2 gets released in 2050, my Blue Ray machine won't be outdated and/or Neil doesn't sell it as a brain implant...

I also agree with everyone who has said the remastering is fabulous. It was very much worth $20... Now off to read the Blueray and DVD reviews.

2009-06-17 -- 2/5:: Needs more unreleased material
This box set is wonderful for fans who own little to no music from Neil. If your are a die hard fan like myself, you will be unimpressed by the lack of songs that were previously unreleased. Your best option would be to buy the individual (unreleased) songs in MP3 form and create a REAL archive mix. The total cost of the songs would be about $20-$30.