Neil Young is trying to “clean up” a “big mess” of unfinished records.
The ‘Heart of Gold’ hitmaker has released his 42nd album, ‘World Record’, less than a year after its predecessor ‘Barn’, brought out four historical live albums and finally unveiled ‘Toast’, his 2000 effort with Crazy Horse, and is also releasing an expanded edition of ‘Harvest’ to mark the landmark record’s 50th anniversary and he admitted he’s trying to work on new music while also completing unfinished old work.
He said: “I got a lot of stuff to clean up.
“I’ve got a big mess that I left behind.
“I’ve created a lot of unfinished records, unfinished this and that. I now have the time to deal with it, focus on it.
“But at the same time, anything new takes precedent. Always.
“Once I start thinking about something new, I drop the old stuff right away and do the new thing.”
While Neil knew when he worked on ‘Toast’ that it was a “great” album, it didn’t seem “important” to bring it out at the time.
He told Uncut magazine: “I knew ‘Toast’ was great.
“I knew it would come out someday. I mean – we finished it, y’know.
“We cared enough about it to finish it.
“So that says something right there.
“But it just didn’t seem important for it to come out at that time, or it would have.”
Collaborator Rick Rubin – who produced ‘World Record’ and was present for some of the ‘Toast’ recording sessions – agreed Neil doesn’t work conventionally.
He said: “Time doesn’t move at traditional speed where Neil is involved. Some things seem to come out impossibly quickly. Other times, they live in obscurity for years until the inclination to release something appeals to Neil.”