Thank you for reading (and listening to) Evil Speakers. This is part two of this month’s series on ’90s Neil. Look for a special bonus audio post this week, featuring an interview with one of my favorite bands of 2026, Twisted Teens. Also, my weekly column on Thursday, which will discuss the new Phoebe Bridgers album. To all my paying subscribers — thank you for making this newsletter viable.
After the tour with Crazy Horse in support of Ragged Glory, Neil Young (no surprise) shredded his hearing. As part of his recovery, he did something he swore he wouldn’t do for 20 years — make a middle of the road singer-songwriter album in the mold of Harvest, his biggest album of the 1970s. In that respect, 1992’s Harvest Moon can be classified as perhaps his most conservative record. But is “conservative” a pejorative in this context? It’s certainly not given how flat-out beautiful this album is. Derived largely from songs he had started in the seventies, Harvest Moon ranks with his finest works in terms of songwriting, with Neil’s wondrous country-folk melodies paired with lyrics that ponder the durability of long-term relationships and what it takes to sustain them. In that sense, it’s a record Neil could have only made in his 40s — the homiest, warmest and wisest record about domesticity ever made.
August 17: Sleeps With Angels (1994)
August 24: Mirror Ball (1995)
August 31: Broken Arrow (1996), also touching on Dead Man and Year Of The Horse (live album and film)
Catalog Club for September 2026: ???
Hint No. 1: This is one of the greatest English rock groups of all time.
Hint No. 2: They broke up, famously.
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