Neil Young has released Second Song, the 50th album of his career and his second with his band The Chrome Hearts. The record arrives with seven songs written by Young, five of which are previously unreleased, while two are unreleased versions of tracks fans may already know — «Casting Me Away From You» and «I'll».
The milestone places Young in rare company. Few artists in the history of recorded popular music have reached a 50th album, and even fewer have done so while continuing to write the bulk of their own material. Young's catalog stretches back to his self-titled debut in 1968 and the following year's Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere with Crazy Horse, and it has since moved through folk, hard rock, country, electronic experiments, and archival projects without a long pause.
The Chrome Hearts have become a central part of Young's recent output. Second Song is the second album he has made with the group, following their first collaboration. The band gives the new material a live, rough-edged foundation that suits Young's long-standing preference for recording quickly and releasing music while it is still fresh.
The decision to include unreleased versions of «Casting Me Away From You» and «I'll» is characteristic of Young's approach to his own archive. He has often revisited older songs, issuing alternate takes, live recordings, and outtakes that reveal how a piece evolved. For longtime listeners, those two tracks are likely to be as much of a draw as the five new compositions.
Young's 50th album also lands in a period when the economics and rituals of album releases have changed dramatically. Physical records, streaming platforms, and surprise digital drops now coexist, and veteran artists frequently use new projects to reconnect with audiences across generations. Young has been unusually active in that landscape, balancing new studio work with the extensive archival series that has documented his career in detail.
At 50 albums, the release is less a summation than another entry in a catalog that keeps expanding. Young has never treated his discography as a closed book, and Second Song continues that pattern: new songs, older songs in new form, and a band he clearly enjoys playing with. The album is available now.