On the Beach is the fifth studio album by Canadian-American musician Neil Young, released by Reprise Records in July 1974. The album is the second of the so-called "Ditch Trilogy" of albums that Young recorded following the major success of 1972's Harvest, whereupon the scope of his success and acclaim became apparent; Young subsequently experienced alienation, and On the Beach was inspired by his feelings of retreat and melancholy stemming from it. On the Beach is a folk rock album exploring themes of anger, alienation, nihilism and cautious optimism. Looking back on the album for the liner notes to the Decade box set, Young wrote that the experience of releasing Harvest, which inspired the despaired themes of On the Beach, "put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore, so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride but I saw more interesting people there." As well as its release on vinyl, On the Beach was also released on cassette and 8-track cartridge, though the track listing for the latter formats was the reverse of that on the vinyl album. It remained unavailable on CD until 2003, when a remastered version was finally released. It has since been re-released as Disc 2 of the 4-CD box set Neil Young Original Release Series Discs 5-8. The album is also available in high-resolution audio on the Neil Young Archives website, where four additional album outtakes were added in February 2021.