Comment of the Moment: Official Releases Series

The Neil Young Comment of the Moment Official Releases Series (ORS) by D.I. Kertis:

I've been wondering about the Official Releases Series. The thing is, I bought the Neil Young and Everybody Knows this is Nowhere remasters earlier today.

They sound great-- in fact I'm listening to the former right now. These are wonderfully improved from their past versions and I'll probably be picking up After the Goldrush and Harvest next weekend. I'm greatly satisfied with them and I'm convinced their worth my money.

But I've been wondering, when Archives 2 eventually rolls around, I'd imagine the albums covered by the set will be restored and reissued, and the same will be done for all future Archives volumes. But the Digital Masterpiece series from 2003--On the Beach, American Stars 'n' Bars, Hawks and Doves, and Re-Act-Or--sound as great as can be.

So I'm guessing Neil won't be reissuing those again as part of the Official Release Series, since they're definitely up the standards of these new remasters. If he does, I won't have any reason to buy them. At the same time, albums that would fall into the presumptive Volume 2 time period--Tonight's the Night, Comes a Time, Rust Never Sleeps, and Live Rust--would likely get the ORS treatment, right?

Then there's Time Fades Away. I'm curious to see how that will be handled as I've heard about this Time Fades Away II business and it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Where will the Stills-Young album and Decade fit into this? Will Decade be superseded by the Archives series once it has covered those ten years? Then there's Toast... and Journey Through the Past STILL hasn't seen CD release, in spite of the fact that it's within the time period Archives 1 covers.

I guess we won't have real answers to these conundrums until (if it ever happens) the Archives series is completed to date. I'm guessing Toast will be released in Volume 4, or whatever number we're at by that point in the chronology and like I said I'd think the DMS wouldn't be reissued. But those are just guesses. I'm also guessing Neil has more of this planned out than he's let on so far, but we'll see...

Thanks -- as always -- D.I.!

More on Neil Young's 2009 releases.