The room › Artists › Neil Young
Where to start with Neil Young
Start with Alabama - 2009 Remaster — Harvest (2009 Remaster), 1972. That is the track sitting closest to the centre of all 12 Neil Young tracks in Zubissou Sounds — a listening room of 14,971 tracks placed one at a time by hand, not an algorithm.
This page is not a discography and not a ranking. It describes exactly one thing: the 12 Neil Young tracks that one person put in one room, and where they sit relative to each other. The starting point above is chosen by a rule you can check — of the 12 tracks, it is the one nearest the average position on the four knobs the room runs on. Nothing here calls any record better than any other.
The dates here run from 1969 to 2018. They are the dates attached to the releases in this room rather than recording dates, so the later ones are likely reissues — but 49 years is still more than one version of the artist.
The density knob swings 79 points across these tracks, the widest of the four — it is the axis this artist actually travels along in this room.
Three ways in
The one track, if you only play one
Alabama - 2009 Remaster — Harvest (2009 Remaster), 1972. Of the 11 Neil Young tracks here that have actually been listened to, this one sits closest to the average of them across the four knobs the room runs on. The other 1 arrived carrying the default for their genre, and averaging a placeholder in would move the centre towards nothing. It is the least surprising thing among the tracks that were read, which is what an entry point should be.
If you want the sparse end
After the Gold Rush — After the Gold Rush (2009 Remaster), 1970. The lowest density reading of any Neil Young track in the room (7 out of 100). This is as far towards sparse as the collection goes.
If you want the wall end
No Hidden Path — Chrome Dreams II, 2007. The highest density reading here, at 86 out of 100 — a 79-point swing across the collection towards wall.
Where Neil Young sits in the room
Zubissou Sounds does not have playlists or genres you click. It has knobs. Every track carries a position on each one, set by hand when the track was added, and you find music by setting the room to a state rather than by searching for a name. These are Neil Young's average coordinates and the range they cover.
| Knob | Average | Range | Low → high |
|---|---|---|---|
| mood | 43 | 34–58 | melancholy → euphoric |
| energy | 43 | 16–68 | ambient → driving |
| density | 39 | 7–86 | sparse → wall |
| head · body | 49 | 30–68 | cerebral → groove |
All four run 0–100. They are placed by a person, not derived from audio analysis or from any streaming service's feature data.
What is here, record by record
| Album | Year | Tracks |
|---|---|---|
| Tonight's the Night | 1975 | 2 |
| Live At Massey Hall 1971 | 2009 | 1 |
| Everybody Knows this is Nowhere | 1969 | 1 |
| Unplugged | 1992 | 1 |
| Harvest (2009 Remaster) | 1972 | 1 |
| After the Gold Rush (2009 Remaster) | 1970 | 1 |
| American Stars 'N Bars | 1977 | 1 |
| Songs for Judy | 2018 | 1 |
| Chrome Dreams II | 2007 | 1 |
| On the Beach | 1974 | 1 |
| Rust Never Sleeps | 1979 | 1 |
Every Neil Young track in the room
| Track | Album | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere | Everybody Knows this is Nowhere | 1969 |
| After the Gold Rush | After the Gold Rush (2009 Remaster) | 1970 |
| Alabama - 2009 Remaster | Harvest (2009 Remaster) | 1972 |
| On the Beach - 2016 Remaster | On the Beach | 1974 |
| Come On Baby Let's Go Downtown | Tonight's the Night | 1975 |
| Roll Another Number (For the Road) | Tonight's the Night | 1975 |
| Will to Love - 2016 Remaster | American Stars 'N Bars | 1977 |
| My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue) - 2016 Remaster | Rust Never Sleeps | 1979 |
| Unknown Legend | Unplugged | 1992 |
| No Hidden Path | Chrome Dreams II | 2007 |
| I Am A Child | Live At Massey Hall 1971 | 2009 |
| Mr. Soul | Songs for Judy | 2018 |
Near neighbours in this room
These are the artists whose average knob position sits nearest to Neil Young's in this room. It is a coordinate match, not a claim that they sound alike.
- Where to start with Fleetwood Mac — classic rock, 11 tracks
- Where to start with Pat Metheny — jazz, 17 tracks
- Where to start with Shakatak — smooth jazz, 10 tracks
What the open databases say
MusicBrainz lists Neil Young as a solo artist, from Toronto, Canada and born in 1945. Its contributors tag the artist folk rock, country rock, rock and folk. These are the open database's facts, not mine — you can check them against the MusicBrainz entry.
Questions
How many Neil Young tracks are in Zubissou Sounds?
There are 12, across 11 albums. 12 of them carry a date, running from 1969 to 2018. That is the whole of what this room holds — it is one person's collection, not a discography.
Is this a best-of, or a ranking?
No. Nothing here is ranked and no track is called better than another. The starting point is picked by arithmetic — the track closest to the centre of all the others on four measured axes — and the rule is printed above so you can disagree with it.
Where do the knob numbers come from?
They are set by hand, one track at a time, by the person who added the track. They are not audio analysis and not a Spotify feature. Mood, energy, density and the head/body balance each run 0 to 100. 11 of these 12 tracks have been read that way. The other 1 arrived with the default for their genre and nobody has listened to them yet, so they are left out of the centre, the ends and the spread quoted above.
Can I listen to these here?
Not yet from this page. Zubissou Sounds is in private beta — the room itself plays through Spotify, and 12 of these 12 tracks are matched to a Spotify ID and ready to play the moment you are in. The waitlist form is at the bottom of this page.