If I think of the albums I've loved for longest, without ever going off them at any stage, I think this in the top three, alongside Street Legal and The Friends of Mr Cairo.
The first version I heard was a cassette on loan from Woking Record Library, which probably had a big effect on ensuring that I would become a Neil Young fan for the rest of my life (so far) — and also led to my A Level Chemistry lesson notes having "the aimless blade of science slashed the pearly gates" scrawled in the margin.
Ah, Thrasher. The metaphors may seem a bit Sixth Form now, but I still love that song. I love them all, just Thrasher especially, and it's the sign of a truly great album that even the less-than-perfect songs (Sail Away is too sweet for my tastes; Welfare Mothers too neanderthal) play a perfect role in adding variety to the whole.
I got this CD version, a fiver from Fopp, at the start of 2002 as a convenient back-up for the vinyl copy I got 19 years earlier.
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