Neil Young Details New 'Official Release Series' Box Set

'Hawks & Doves,' 'Re•ac•tor,' 'This Note's For You' and EP 'Eldorado' make up the latest instalment

BY Calum SlingerlandPublished Mar 18, 2022

Continuing to crank out all manner of new material, archival releases and bootlegs, Neil Young has now teed up the next Official Release Series box set release.

Today, Young shared details of the latest Official Release Series box via his Neil Young Archives website. The collection, which will bring together four of Young's releases for Reprise Records, will arrive April 29.

Official Release Series Discs 13, 14, 20 & 21 will bring together Young's 1980 solo LP Hawks & Doves, 1981's Re•ac•tor with Crazy Horse, 1988's This Note's for You with backing band the Bluenotes, and 1989 EP Eldorado, which initially saw release in only Australia and Japan.

Young wrote on his Archives site of the collection, "After the rush of Rust Never Sleeps and the Live Rust albums with Crazy Horse, I settled into a different phase of the musical journey with Hawks and Doves and Crazy Horse's Reactor. In the center of these four albums, I made a group of LPs for Geffen Records. Then I happily returned to reprise with This Note's for You and Eldorado, the last two albums in this set."

Hawks & Doves is among the shortest albums in Young's catalogue. Its first side features more minimal, predominately acoustic songs recorded between 1974 and 1977, while its second side sports more country-leaning material recorded with a band. Opener "Little Wing" most recently appeared in its rightful place on Young's 2020 archival LP Homegrown, while "Captain Kennedy" was found on 2017 archival LP Hitchhiker.

Eldorado, which received a standalone vinyl reissue in 2021, is Young's first solo EP. Inclusions "Cocaine Eyes" and "Heavy Love" are not found on any other recording in the artist's catalogue, while "Don't Cry," "On Broadway" and "Eldorado" would go on to receive different mixes for their inclusion on Young's 1989 LP Freedom.

That "group of LPs for Geffen Records" Young mentions — 1982's Trans, 1983's Everybody's Rockin' with the Shocking Pinks, 1985's Old Ways, 1986's Landing on Water and 1987's Life — are part of what is now regarded as Young's experimental period. Following those first two releases, he was famously sued by the label for making music "unrepresentative" of himself, perhaps hastening his return to Reprise.

As it's likely that this collection won't be found on Spotify, you can find the tracklisting for CD and LP versions of Official Release Series Discs 13, 14, 20 & 21 below.

Young and Crazy Horse released Barn last year. His most recent Official Release Series box set arrived in 2016, preceding his massive Archives: Vol. II box set. Back in January, he teased that the third volume of that Archives series would be announced mid-2022.

LP/CD 1: Hawks & Doves

1. Little Wing
2. The Old Homestead
3. Lost in Space
4. Captain Kennedy
5. Stayin' Power
6. Coastline
7. Union Man
8. Comin' Apart at Every Nail
9. Hawks & Doves

LP/CD 2: Re•ac•tor

1. Opera Star
2. Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze
3. T-Bone
4. Get Back on It
5. Southern Pacific
6. Motor City
7. Rapid Transit
8. Shots

LP/CD 3: This Note's For You

1. Ten Men Workin'
2. This Note's for You
3. Coupe de Ville
4. Life in the City
5. Twilight
6. Married Man
7. Sunny Inside
8. Can't Believe Your Lyin'
9. Hey Hey
10. One Thing

LP/CD 4: Eldorado

1. Cocaine Eyes
2. Don't Cry
3. Heavy Love
4. On Broadway
5. Eldorado

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