So Chrome Dreams is officially released. Did you buy it? Are you planning to? In a physical or a digital copy? Have no interest in it? If so, why not?
For those who have it, what are your thoughts on it?

I like Neil Young a lot, this record is the right vintage, and some great songs....but I don't know if I care about slight variations on old material in a post Pono world.

American stars and bars is one of my favorite NY albums, I probably don't need another version of these songs, but when has that stopped me before?

I love Neil Young, but he sure is mercurial. Even when doing something like this, releasing one of his legendarily unreleased albums, he manages to frustrate me. For starters, only 3 of the versions of the songs on this album are previously unreleased. Unlike Homegrown where almost all of the material was previously unreleased (either the song or the version), this is essentially a compilation of songs that fans are already very familiar with. Homegrown was great, but there is something about it finally being released after hovering in near mythical limbo for so long that was a bit disappointing. Like, now that it was here, as great as it was, it couldn't live up to the IDEA of what it could have been.

His archival releases have been very hit or miss for me. Crazy Horse at the Fillmore 1970 is sheer brilliance. Hitchhiker was a collection of demos of songs whose definitive versions are found elsewhere. It did nothing but make me want to hear those other versions. The official vinyl release of Citizen Kane Jr. Blues live at the Bottom Line was a holy grail for me, but they butchered it. One of my favorite live recordings of all time and they edited it to fit on one LP, removing the extended "raps" especially the incredible, lengthy intro to Motion Pictures and the story of seeing a black cop punch a fan calling out for Southern Man. Those raps were just as important as the songs and the album is incomplete without them. Crazy Horse-Way Down In The Rust Bucket is great. Songs For Judy AKA The Bernstein tapes is incredible.

Long way of saying that I don't see enough unreleased material on Chrome Dreams to justify a purchase. As has been said, American Stars N' Bars is fantastic, this just looks like a tweak of it. And if you haven't heard the live version of Too Far Gone on Songs For Judy, that's the one to listen to.

I just saw that Crazy Horse at Budokan 76 is FINALLY coming out on vinyl. That's the one that's gonna get my money.