If [After the Goldrush] had been anybody's album but Neil Young's, it would have been an achievement. Indeed, it may seem to be an achievement to that unfortunate majority who know Neil Young only from his work with Crosby, Stills, Nash, and not from the Buffalo Springfield or from his two previous solo albums. After The Goldrush is pleasant enough, but it lacks intensity and genius….

[It is] the first Neil Young album to be anything less than brilliant….

Neil Young could be the most underrated, overlooked, and unjustly ignored record in rock and roll. It is overproduced, overarranged, and grossly overdone, yet for all its excesses, it nevertheless contains some of the most subtle, most perceptive, and most inventive songwriting in contemporary music. As composer, Neil Young revealed himself to be extraordinarily original and daring, and odd rhythm shifts and offbeat phrasing abound. Similarly, the lyrics are...