1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die: 182. Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young – Déjà vu (1970)

 

I really hadn’t made any notes on this. Déjà vu indeed. At least, here, Neil Young has joined in again, as much as Neil Young ever seems to join in with things.

This album, as far as the hits go, belongs to Nash, and his relationship with Joan Baez that informs a couple of tracks. One is a cover of Baez’s Woodstock, a much faster version than I’m used to, while Our House sings of domestic bliss, hearkening back to the ongoing theme of the former hippies moving from activism to domesticity. Darn those Boomers.

Nash himself said that he finds Our House to be highly saccharine, which I find amusing. His third popular track on the album is Teach The Children, which is prime CSN with its harmonies and bouncy country style.

Meanwhile, Neil Young is off doing his scratchy guitar solos, and falling somewhere between the kind of light folk of Harvest and the more grungy Crazy Horse sounds, while the Stills and Crosby tracks didn’t really make much of an impact on me.

I know I’ve been complaining a lot recently about Dimery’s apparent obsession for Dave Crosby, but to be honest I don’t really mind a lot of this lot’s music; this one, though, is neither a particularly coherent nor consistent album, but neither is it one that’s interesting for its very inconsistency. Like most elements of it, it falls somewhere in the middle. Of everything.