Crosby, Stills & Nash Albums (9)
What The Critics Say
There are some excellent songs here, notably Young's "This Old House" and Crosby's "Compass," but the quartet didn't really jell on its first new studio album in 14 years. Certainly, expectations were so high that the album seemed much worse than it really was, and in retrospect it seems a workmanlike effort simply lacking the spark that made this group so much more than the sum of its parts. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Although Crosby, Stills & Nash had, in effect, been together for well over a decade when Daylight Again (1982) was issued, it was only their third studio long-player of concurrently new material. Initially, the project began as a collaborative effort between Stephen Stills (guitar/banjo/keyboards/percussion/vocals) and Graham Nash (guitar/keyboards/percussion/vocals), as David Crosby was descending into a self-induced state of perpetual drug dependency. However, Crosby was included, although arguably in name alone, and his hauntingly lyrical "Delta" stands as one of his finest contributions. Perhaps the most telling element in the trio's state of affairs was the addition of the Eagles' Timothy B. Schmit and CSN bandmember Mike Finnigan (keyboards/vocals) on vocals throughout. Despite that obvious setback, the other two primary namesakes supply some genuine and uniformly excellent material to the proceedings. Among the most notable are Nash's "Wasted on the Way" -- which was lyrically an ode to the status of the group's union -- and Stills' collaboration with the Curtis Brothers on "Southern Cross." Both were extracted as singles and became among the best-known tracks not only on Daylight Again, but also in the post-'60s CSN canon. The disc also includes a few thoroughly affective ballads such as "Song for Susan" -- which Nash wrote for his spouse -- and Stills' equally emotive "You Are Alive." By contrast, the album's opener, "Turn Your Back on Love," as well as "Too Much Love to Hide" and "Since I Met You" are all up-tempo, full-throttle rockers co-composed by Stills, and include some of the guitarist's most blistering fretwork under the CSN moniker. The disc concludes with Stills' lone solo composition on the album -- a two-part track marrying the newly penned Civil War elegy to a chorus of the 1970 anthem "Find the Cost of Freedom." Again, Crosby's absence is noted with the incorporation of Art Garfunkel's vocals where Crosby's should have been. Daylight Again is by no means as insipid as their next studio effort, Live It Up (1990). In the wake of their eponymously titled debut and the CSN (1977) follow-up, there is a notable change in the direction and quality of material. ~ Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The times had certainly changed since Déjà Vu's release in 1970. Nevertheless, there was a hunger in audiences for a return to the harmony-soaked idealism with which the trio had been catapulted to popularity, and CSN consequently reached number two on the charts, behind Fleetwood Mac's megasuccessful Rumours. The music here is very good, though probably not up to the hard-to-match level of Crosby, Stills & Nash or Déjà Vu. Still, the songs showed a great deal of lyrical maturity and compositional complexity compared to those earlier albums (from a far more innocent time). "Just a Song Before I Go" was the latest of Graham Nash's radio-friendly acoustic numbers, and a Top Ten single. "See the Changes" and "Dark Star" ranked with the best of Stephen Stills' work, while David Crosby contributed three classics from his distinctive oeuvre: "Shadow Captain," "Anything at All," and the beautiful "In My Dreams." Nash's multi-part "Cathedral," a recollection of an acid trip taken in Winchester Cathedral on his 32nd birthday, became a staple of the group's live repertoire. CSN was the trio's last fully realized album, and also the last recording on which the three principals handled all the vocal parts without the sweetening of additional voices. It has held up remarkably well, both as a memento of its time and as a thoroughly enjoyable musical work. ~ Jim Newsom, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
One of the most hotly awaited second albums in history -- right up there with those by the Beatles and the Band -- Déjà Vu lived up to its expectations and rose to number one on the charts. Those achievements are all the more astonishing given the fact that the group barely held together through the estimated 800 hours it took to record Déjà Vu and scarcely functioned as a group for most of that time. Déjà Vu worked as an album, a product of four potent musical talents who were all ascending to the top of their game coupled with some very skilled production, engineering, and editing. There were also some obvious virtues in evidence -- the addition of Neil Young to the Crosby, Stills & Nash lineup added to the level of virtuosity, with Young and Stephen Stills rising to new levels of complexity and volume on their guitars. Young's presence also ratcheted up the range of available voices one notch and added a uniquely idiosyncratic songwriter to the fold, though most of Young's contributions in this area were confined to the second side of the LP. Most of the music, apart from the quartet's version of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock," was done as individual sessions by each of the members when they turned up (which was seldom together), contributing whatever was needed that could be agreed upon. "Carry On" worked as the album's opener when Stills "sacrificed" another copyright, "Questions," which comprised the second half of the track and made it more substantial. "Woodstock" and "Carry On" represented the group as a whole, while the rest of the record was a showcase for the individual members. David Crosby's "Almost Cut My Hair" was a piece of high-energy hippie-era paranoia not too far removed in subject from the Byrds' "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man," only angrier in mood and texture (especially amid the pumping organ and slashing guitars); the title track, also by Crosby, took 100 hours to work out and was a better-received successor to such experimental works as "Mind Gardens," out of his earlier career with the Byrds, showing his occasional abandonment of a rock beat, or any fixed rhythm at all, in favor of washing over the listener with tones and moods. "Teach Your Children," the major hit off the album, was a reflection of the hippie-era idealism that still filled Graham Nash's life, while "Our House" was his stylistic paean to the late-era Beatles and "4+20" was a gorgeous Stephen Stills blues excursion that was a precursor to the material he would explore on the solo album that followed. And then there were Neil Young's pieces, the exquisitely harmonized "Helpless" (which took many hours to get to the slow version finally used) and the roaring country-ish rockers that ended side two, which underwent a lot of tinkering by Young -- even his seeming throwaway finale, "Everybody I Love You," was a bone thrown to longtime fans as perhaps the greatest Buffalo Springfield song that they didn't record. All of this variety made Déjà Vu a rich musical banquet for the most serious and personal listeners, while mass audiences reveled in the glorious harmonies and the thundering electric guitars, which were presented in even more dramatic and expansive fashion on the tour that followed. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
A double live album originally released on April 7, 1971 by CSN&Y is an indispensable part of any collection, with additional Neil Young and Graham Nash material (and even a version of "King Midas in Reverse," the old Hollies tune) that any serious listener will want. Some of the extended guitar jams between Stills and Young ("Southern Man") go on longer than strict musical sense would dictate, but it seemed right at the time, and they capture a form that was far more abused in other hands after this group broke up. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
'Crosby, Stills & Nash'
Release Date 1/1/1969
Tracks 10
Label Atlantic
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
The Crosby, Stills & Nash triumvirate shot to immediate superstardom with the release of its self-titled debut LP, a sparkling set immortalizing the group's amazingly close, high harmonies. While elements of the record haven't dated well -- Nash's Eastern-influenced musings on the hit "Marrakesh Express" now seem more than a little silly, while the antiwar sentiments of "Wooden Ships," though well-intentioned, are rather hokey -- the harmonies are absolutely timeless, and the best material remains rock-solid. Stills' gorgeous opener, "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," in particular, is an epic love song remarkable in its musical and emotional intricacy, Nash's "Pre-Road Downs" is buoyant folk-pop underpinned by light psychedelic textures, and Crosby's "Long Time Gone" remains a potent indictment of the assassination of Robert Kennedy. A definitive document of its era. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
