We all need a pandemic project, and this is mine: an in-depth evaluation of the recording legacy of Neil Young during the 1980s, a period that exactly no one cites as his creative or commercial peak.

As a huge Neil Young fan, I had read plenty about this inglorious era of his long and storied career, a period that critics characterize as a series of half-baked ideas, head-scratching left turns and overall loss of form from one of the titans of singer-songwriters. And it eventually dawned on me that, as much of a fan as I am of his ‘70s output and even some of his later work, I had almost no familiarity with any of the nine albums he released during the go-go Reagan era.

Can the nine releases really be that bad? Although this era of Young isn’t exactly known for producing any runaway hits like “Heart of Gold” or signature jams a la “Cortez the Killer” or “Cowgirl in the Sand,” there are a couple albums recorded with his noisy backing band Crazy Horse, another of his forays into country music and even an electronic experiment in the bunch.

What’s more, there are some great stories intertwined with this period of Young’s career, about lawsuits and counter suits, family triumph and heartbreak, a dispute with his record label and generally going against the grain, which has always been a very Neil Young thing to do.

Plus, he gave us this inspired piece of mad genius:

I’m joined in this endeavor by my good friend John Holkeboer, a talented musician in his own right and fellow NY fan. As I write this, we’ve already discussed the first three albums. The first two were on Twitter before we realized the folly of our ways. For the third, the polarizing 1982 album “Trans,” we switched to video, which feels like a very early ‘80s thing to say.

Since we began the project, Young announced plans to release his lost album “Island in the Sun,” recorded in Hawaii in 1982 and rejected by David Geffen, meaning we may have 10 albums to cover. Before we are finished with this series the format may evolve to scratch-and-sniff, Betamax or maybe virtual reality.

The albums and links to our takes are below. Hope you enjoy.

Neil Young 1980s albums

• Hawks & Doves, 1980
• Re-ac-tor, 1981
• Trans, 1982
• Everybody’s Rockin’, 1983
• Old Ways, 1985
• Landing on Water, 1986
• Life, 1987
• This Note’s for You, 1988
• Freedom, 1989