I remember when this came out and Mark Radcliffe introduced it on his weekly Out on Blue Six programme (which was great and all the better for being short and scripted) along the lines of "Normally the announcement of a new unplugged album by an old has-been is an incitement to unplug the TV, but I make an exception for Neil Young". He then went on to play the pipe organ version of Like a Hurricane, which is possibly the greatest novelty of the album, and pretty haunting (it's the third version of the song in the last five weeks after Roxy Music and Crazy Horse).
Apart from that there's little that's remarkable about the album, and I don't play it often. It has a finely balanced set list of his ancient hits (Helpless, Needle and the Damage Done), contemporary hits (three songs from Harvest Moon), rarities (first version of Stringman, originally played live in 1976, on record, plus World on a String), and acoustic interpretations of unlikely songs (Transformer Man, Mr Soul and Hurricane). I thought it might be an album for what Guy calls the Heart-of-Gold Toetappers, but it's better than that: Heart of Gold isn't on it, for a start. The whole performance slips down like a fine wine, showing off the songs to great effect. It's produced by David Briggs, which is unusual for Neil's acoustic work.
Another nerdy fan fact: this recording is actually the second one Neil Young made for the Unplugged series. The first one was a few months before this, but Neil declared it unsatisfactory. No doubt bootlegs of the first one exist, but I kind of hope this won't be included in the Archives series: I hope some quality control will be applied, and they won't just put out stuff because they can.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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