Crosby, Stills & Nash (1st Album, Expanded and Remastered)

 (32 customer reviews)

The music gets five stars. The 3 stars are for the lousy remastering job. There are so many problems here, let me list them for you:

1. I did a direct comparison between this new remaster and the older remaster job from the mid-90's. The older version blows this one away! This new remaster lacks any high end, making a lot of the songs sound flat.

2. The beginning of "49 Bye Byes" is cutoff. Crosby sings "You better come on in my kitchen / because it's going to be raining outside." This part is missing. Apparently, the estate of Robert Johnson objected (why now, after all these years?).

3. If you're thinking of buying this disc for the bonus tracks, save your money. The best one, "Song With No Words" is already available on the CSN boxset. The others are nice demos, but don't really lend themselves to repeated listening.

4. THE KICKER: They removed a picture of Dallas Taylor from the back of the CD booklet. On the original LP...Read more

I just received and listened to Rhino Record's new reissue of CSN's first album (Rhino has recently done sonically wondrous things with early Chicago albums, especially their first, "Chicago Transit Authority"). The sound is pretty glorious throughout, and now that I've had a chance to give it a really critical listening, I can definitely say it's better than Atlantic's and Joe Gastwirt/Ocean View Digital's first digital remastering that was released a few years back (not to be confused with the initial CD transfer, which fell very flat sonically, as did most CDs of that time). During my first listening, I particularly noticed that the atmospeherics of "Guinnevere" stand out, as does the clarity of the vocal lines in "Helplessly Hoping." In fact, all the vocals are outstandingly clear, making the trademark three-part harmonies much easier to follow individually. In general, the whole album is a little more 3-dimensional, allowing you to hear into the mix a little bit better. And...Read more

Rightly so, this CD remains a cornerstone record that deserves a place in everyone's library. The writing was superb, and Nash for one, would rarely come up to this standard after this. Stills was determined to prove he was the best damned musician working in the States at that time, and Crosby, oddly enough, was the inspirational glue that held it all together. It wouldn't last, but who knew at this point?

The remastering is the issue here, and this music has always set a fidelity standard that you could measure every other recording by, again, thanks to Stills. Whether on vinyl or in digital formats, there is a presence to this music that is hard to quantify, but its quality is undeniable. The current remastering, on the heels of the superlative solo outing from Stills and the consistently brilliant work by Crosby post clean-up, offers you an intimacy and warmth I hadn't heard on even the very best pressings before. Forget the extra songs, even though they alone would...Read more