CSN

 (44 customer reviews)

I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that 1977's _CSN_ represents the best work Crosby, Stills, and Nash have ever done together.I don't mean to take anything away from their earlier albums. Their debut LP was deservedly a landmark in modern music history, and _Deja Vu_ -- with Neil Young in on the act -- was _another_ landmark. You have to go some way to beat _two_ landmarks.But I think CSN do so on this deceptively laid-back album. They've always described their work as being about the changes that they (and other people) go through, and every song here is a little gem about exactly that. (Including Nash's brooding "Cathedral," which, one assumes, is about his own rejection of historical Christianity.)In only one or two other album reviews have I been able to say, about the work under review, that there are _no_ weak tracks. This is another. _CSN_ is the only album by any of these guys, alone or in combination, that I can listen through without ever...Read more

Some people prefer the youthful flash of this trio's first album, some the rocknroll flash of the first one where "Y" was part of the mix, but I've always found CSN to be the most satisfying of Crosby, Stills and Nash' efforts in that particular formation. The main reason is that it sounds like three ADULTS really giving their all together; in the songwriting, in the harmonies, in every respect. Particular high points are Still's "See The Changes," a sort-of cousin musically to his earlier "Helplessly Hoping," but whose world-weary lyrics are some of the most penetrating the man ever wrote; Nash's "Cold Rain," about returning to where you originally came from and remembering why you left in the first place, with some wonderful close harmonies; Nash again with "Cathedral," a dramatic high point in the group's arrangements; and Crosby's "Shadow Captain," as potently evocative of sailing on the open seas as a song...Read more

CSN's 1977 album is a classic. Harmony vocals may be out of fashion these days, but if you don't know this record, man you had better catch up. Both intimate and powerful, sad and hopeful, this record has no flaws. If you want to escape from a world that is moving faster by the minute, this record is sure to help. Some of the very best of Crosby Stills and Nash is here on one CD. Get it.