On September 6th, 2024, Neil Young released his third Archives box set. There are actually two versions. The Deluxe Edition is limited to 5,000 copies and is priced at $450 (available on Neil Young’s official site). It has 17 audio CD’s and five Blu-ray Discs. There are approximately 14 hours of audio and 14 hours of video. Plus there’s a 176 page hardcover book. The second box set has the 17 CD’s, but no video discs and a 36 page booklet instead of a book. It’s priced at $240 (which is about $14 a disc).
Here’s the timing of the three Archives releases. Archives I came out in 2009, and covered Young’s career from 1963-1972. It took eleven years (November of 2020) for the release of Archives II, which covered 1972-1976. And now it’s about four years later when we get Archives III, covering 1976-1987. The 17 CD’s have 198 tracks including 15 songs that have never been released, and 121 alternate or live versions. More specifically (by my count), there are 82 live tracks, 62 previously released tracks, 39 alternate studio tracks, and 15 unreleased songs.
The first two discs are live performances with Crazy Horse from 1976. Disc 3 consists of 20 previously released songs from 1976 & 1977, and one previously unreleased version.
Disc 4 features Nicolette Larson and Linda Ronstadt singing with Neil, mostly in 1977, the year he recorded Comes A Time. Most of the tracks on that disc are previously unreleased versions. Nicolette Larson is also featured on Disc 7 Union Hall (1977). The promo for the set says three unreleased albums are included, but some of the songs were already on other albums, often in other versions. Here are the track lists which include details (click to enlarge).
This last disc includes Neil’s piano version of “Someday”, which is superior to the previously released Freedom album version, but not quite as good as his solo live version. Most of the songs on Disc 17 are early acoustic studio recordings, close to demos.
The eleven films last 14 hours, and four of the films were previously unreleased.
The only vinyl is a 16-track 2-record set, Takes, which takes one track each from 16 of the CD’s. It’s priced at $35. It’s also available for digital purchase, and you can check it out on the streaming services.
The Archives II release was especially good with a lot of great unreleased tracks from 1972-1976 after his career high of Harvest. Since the new Archives III covers 1976-1987, it includes the albums Comes A Time, Rust Never Sleeps, Live Rust, Trans, Landing On Water, and more.