Comes a Time is the ninth studio album by Canadian-American singer-songwriter Neil Young, released by Reprise Records in October 1978.

The album also features layers of overdubs and a large cast of supporting musicians, a contrast to his typical preference for live in the studio recording.

Young had first played the songs with various other bands, including CSNY, Crazy Horse and The Ducks.

The lyrics to "Goin' Back" reflect feeling nostalgia for a previous time or place.

"[6] "Lotta Love" was recorded with Crazy Horse in January 1976 with guitarist Poncho Sampedro on piano.

"Human Highway" dates from 1973, and was first recorded in the summer of that year in Hawaii by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young for an album that would have shared the same title.

Pegi was fond of riding motorcycles, a characteristic Young sings about in his later portrait of her, "Unknown Legend".

"Four Strong Winds", which closes the album, is a cover of the 1963 Canadian folk song by Ian and Sylvia.

He explains during the 2005 concert for his film Heart of Gold: "When I [was] just a kid, sixteen or seventeen years old, I went to this place out near Winnipeg where I grew up and it's called Falcon Lake.

Young describes his process at these sessions in the biography Shakey: "I made most of Comes a Time in Florida by myself, with these kids that were startin' a recording studio—Triad.

[12] Young agreed and scheduled additional sessions in Nashville with a full band in November, 1977.

According to Young archivist and photographer Joel Bernstein, "With the possible exception of Danny Whitten, Nicolette sang better with Neil than anyone.

"[14] Five of the album's songs, "Goin' Back", "Comes a Time", "Already One", "Piece of Mind" and "Four Strong Winds" feature performances by more than thirty musicians, creating a Phil Spector-esque wall of sound.

In Special Deluxe, Young remembers the difficulty of recording "Look Out for My Love" and relays a funny anecdote of how it was finally captured on tape: "We were having a lot of trouble getting it right and time was dragging on.

It was during the introduction to the song that the door to the studio playing room opened and Ellen Talbot, Johnny's wife, danced slowly in and pulled down her jeans, showing us all her ass.

The recordings of "Pocahontas" and "Sail Away" from Rust Never Sleeps date from the sessions but were ultimately left off the album.

The artist had been unhappy with the album's sound, owing to damage that occurred to the master tape during shipment to the mixing facility.

"[10] Young would explain in a November 1978 interview with Tony Schwartz for Newsweek: "Musically, I get crazy when it's not right.

"[5] The version of the album most widely available today was personally remixed by Young from the safety copy of the original master.

"[16][17] In a March 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, Young clarified that he used the discarded LPs as shingles for a barn roof.

On November 12th, 1977, the group performed a free concert in benefit of a children's hospital at Miami's Bicentennial Park.

The setlist is notable for a cover of "Sweet Home Alabama", performed in memory of Ronnie Van Zandt and the other members of Lynyrd Skynyrd who perished in an accident the previous month.

[10] In May 1978 Young would perform acoustic sets at the Boarding House in San Francisco, and tour with Crazy Horse in the fall of that year.

Reviewing for The Village Voice in October 1978, Robert Christgau hailed Comes a Time as a "tour de force" for its folkie concept and music, with melodies that rival those of Young's After the Gold Rush (1970) and a sound that is "almost always quiet, usually acoustic and drumless, and sweetened by Nicolette Larson".

While noting that listeners may "wonder why this thirty-two-year-old hasn't learned more about Long-Term Relationships", Christgau was ultimately won over by "the spare, good-natured assurance of the singing and playing" for how it "deepens the more egregious homilies and transforms good sense into wisdom".

[24] Stereo Review magazine's Noel Coppage found the album to be Young's "simplest, most acoustic, and best produced" record since 1972's Harvest, but more "down to earth and direct" in comparison and highlighted by a healthier perspective to his usual angst and varied songs performed in a consistent style.

Describing Comes a Time as "a restrained and modest set of love songs that traces a long affair from first light to final regrets", he expressed disappointment at the relative "facelessness" of the songwriting when compared with rougher music on earlier albums like Zuma (1975) and American Stars 'n Bars (1977).

[26] At the end of 1978, Comes a Time was voted the year's eighth best album in the Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics nationwide, published in The Village Voice.

Miles interprets the opening track "Goin' Back" as Young returning to folk music in refuge from the real world, much as in the same way the album altogether offers listeners "a steady haven in dark times" with lyrics about "taking shelter from troubles and going out to face them again".

[21] AllMusic's William Ruhlmann recommended the album to fans of Harvest, saying "melodies, love lyrics, lush arrangements, and steel guitar solos dominated, and Young's vocals were made more accessible by being paired with Nicolette Larson's harmonies.