Needless to say, his songs are easily the best on Looking Forward. The title track is nice, except for the chirpy harmonies. “Slowpoke” was heralded as the son of “Heart Of Gold”, but we get a little concerned when Neil doesn’t seem to realize he’s rewritten James Taylor’s version of “Handyman”. “Out Of Control” takes him back to the piano for a few poignant minutes, but by the middle he sounds like Kermit the Frog. “Queen Of Them All” is the only Neil song recorded amidst the project (as opposed to being imported from his stockpile) and it has a lively jawbone appeal.
On their own these tunes are fair to middling, whereas in the album context they illuminate the rest. Stills’ songs are hideous, Nash hadn’t written anything decent in over twenty years, and Crosby was saving his best songs for his CPR side-project. It’s a lot better than American Dream, or any other CSN project since 1977. (At least the resultant tour made the concept of CSNY2K a reality.)
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Looking Forward (1999)—2
You give the impression that "Handy Man" was written by James Taylor, so I just thought I'd mention it was written by Jimmy Jones and Otis Blackwell in the 1950s.
ReplyDeleteGood call! I should have been more clear. I've amended the review accordingly to refer to James Taylor's slow version of the song -- every other version I've heard is much more upbeat.
ReplyDeleteI really wanted to like this album, but I just can’t. Unlike you, I thought they had regained quite a bit of the old spark on “After the Storm”. However, I do have to agree with your 2 here.
ReplyDeleteFor one thing, the album was produced poorly. I can’t put my finger on it, but it just sounds too LOUD, even the quiet songs. The worst two are "Faith in Me" (Joe Vitale strikes again) and "Queen of Them All". All those percussion overdubs on these two give me a headache.
Starting with Crosby: we’ve heard it all before. Boring adult contemporary smooth jazz-pop on “Dream for Him”, despite some heartfelt if meandering lyrics. As for the protest song “Stand and Be Counted”, he managed to be OFFENSIVE with his mention of Tiananmen Square. Croz, did you REALLY want your ass to get shot and mowed down by a tank? Such ego.
Stills wants to rock out, but sounds burned out. His Latinisms have finally reached the point where he sounds like Jimmy Buffett on “Faith in Him”. Buffett might sound better covering it.
As for Nash, the harmonies lift “Someday Soon” enough for it not to be trite and brings back a glimmer of that youthful optimism. On the other hand, the vocals aren’t enough to save “Heartland”, which is just too deathly dull.
Young’s contributions are certainly more substantial than at least half of his contributions to “American Dream”. However, “Slowpoke” lives up to its title and the aforementioned “Queen of Them All” is too cluttered and noisy. The title track is my favorite song on the album, with simple, but effective lyrics and, again, great harmonies.
You don’t mention “Sanibel”. It’s sort of guilty pleasure for me. Nash came across Denny Sarokin’s demo sometime after “American Dream” but kept sitting on it. This was because no one could replicate Sarokin’s guitar part to Graham’s satisfaction, so he finally brought him in to finish up the track.
None of the songs are good enough for me to put on a CSN playlist, never mind making me want to put on the whole album on again. The group’s fire was out. For good? Thanks to Crosby not being able to keep his big yap shut, no one would ever get chance to find out.