Another year,
another new twist in the saga of Neil Young's long-in-the-works
"Archives" series.
The multi-disc first volume of the project, which has shifted release
dates countless times in the past two years, was most recently scheduled
to arrive Feb. 19. But Young told Billboard last week that a new
technological twist is responsible for the latest delay.
"I know it's in technical production now, but it's only coming out on
Blu-ray and DVD," he said during an interview at the Sundance Film
Festival, where he and his Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young bandmates
unveiled their "Deja Vu" documentary. "There won't be CDs. Technology
has caught up to what the concept was in the first place [and] how we're
able to actually present it. But there's no doubt it will come out this
year."
That's right: no CDs, a format Young has long despised due to its audio
limitations. Instead, Young is utilizing DVD capabilities to present an
interactive "time line" for the music, allowing users to experience
articles and film clips from a song's given era as well as ephemera like
lyric sheets.
"Archives" appeared closer than ever to release in October, when Young's
new studio album, "Chrome Dreams," was bundled at select retail outlets
with a bonus CD with a song from "Live at the Riverboat." That
collection, which will appear in "Archives," chronicles a week's worth
of concerts taped in Toronto shortly after Buffalo Springfield split.
The package is also expected to include the previously released concert
sets "Live at the Fillmore East" and "Live at Massey Hall." The
remainder will feature material cut with Young's early Canadian band the
Squires, recordings from the period during which he lived in Topanga
Canyon, Calif., and scores of previously unreleased studio tracks.
