If I Could Only Remember My Name

The Good: Knowing we are not alone!
The Bad: Not knowing one’s name, when it is clearly listed on the album…
The Ugly: Realizing that my name isn’t David… or Crosby…

After having sat through the album Deja Vu, by CSNY, I was kind of looking forward to this here little excursion… but then I found out that we don’t know who we are, leading me to stop the excursion before getting lost in the woods too!

So yeah, this was not was I was hoping it would be.
One too many songs just drag along, probably loved by plenty a hippy, enjoying a little acid trip, while trying to recall their own name.

Chalk this album up to an experience which I will not be repeating.

2*

I’m not there yet. I might love this as a 70 year old man with a long ass beard doing yoga on a sunday morning, but as I said… Not there yet.
Sounds amazing tho.

Yeah, that’s a 5. Hell, maybe higher.

Very weird for this to shift from a traditional CSNY-esque album to something rather Eno-esque by its final 3 tracks, but something about this felt ethereally good. I really don’t know how to put it into words; I’m super stunned or anything, but I think it’s an album where the musicality more than speaks for itself. The first 2 tracks here are “normal” (and very good too!), and then once “Tamalpais High” hits, the album lets the aural side of music speak more for itself than the lyrics do. I could be wrong, but I think this is a really technical album for 1971. Nothing’s that crazy, but just in terms of the mixing, layering & harmonization required to achieve the sort of blend of melancholy & bliss told mostly through the music, this feels decently ahead of pace, and certainly far from expectations from one of the guys from CSNY.

This also happens to be a remarkably star-studded record, which makes it all the more impressive that they signed up for an album like this & not something more adjacent to Deja Vu – the rest of CSNY are here, as is Joni Mitchell, plus the drummer from Santana in their Abraxas era, and seemingly all of both Jefferson Airplane & The Grateful Dead. Look, I ripped heavy on the Grateful Dead for their abysmally drab live album we got 502 albums ago, but their slow, building instrumental style works wonders here, especially when combined with the rest of the musicianship on this album & David Crosby’s penchant for harmonization. This is a slow 37 minute album, and it’s one that makes you just kind of sit in for the whole runtime, but it’s the sort of slow album that makes you really appreciate it by the end of it. Hell, it made me wish “I’d Swear There Was Somebody Here” would go for at least another 3 minutes, so they did something right.

I guess my single nitpick would be that “Song with No Words” should’ve ended the album with how short the final 2 are, but regardless, it’s a deeply satisfying album, and honestly, it’s probably better than both of Stephen Stills’ solo albums on the list. I might need to listen to Graham Nash’s in my own time since it’s not here, but this shoots right up as one of the best CSNY-adjacent albums we’ve gotten. There’s still 3 more Neil Young albums on the list, which feels kind of crazy. Regardless of all that, this album exists in a blissful little space and I’m so very glad to have heard it. It’s an easy 5 for me, and probably a bit higher.

Tons of talent on the record, seemingly wasted. Tough to stay engaged with this one.

fora, bolje nego što sam mislio. al na kraju krajeva ništa posebno

no.

Good album with good vocals and interesting guitar. I felt it drags a bit at times.

Oh god, this is going to suck.

It's whatever, man. I'm getting so much 70s shit that it's all starting to meld together. It all sounds like three things: hippie shit, rock shit, or nascent punk shit.

Es war so durchschnittlich ich hab nichtmal ne Meinung hierzu

Perhaps my favorite voice in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. His raspy voice is a great addition to the nice vocal harmonies they have. The other members chime in on his solo album as well, which I think are the best moments here. It's a nice album, but it's very light on hits and memorable moments. I've listened to it about 5-10 times but I can never really recall anything from this album. I wish it stuck with me more, but alas it doesn't.

3.5

Imagine Ringo Starr wandered into Laurel Canyon, lit some incense, and said, “𝘏𝘦𝘺, 𝘭𝘦𝘵’𝘴 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘳𝘥 — 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴.” That’s more or less what David Crosby did here.

The album floats somewhere between grief and a stoned group hug, full of reverb-drenched harmonies, shimmering guitars, and loose, drifting jams. Some moments feel improvised, others like sonic prayers.

Sure, it’s occasionally aimless — but that’s part of the charm. It’s less a singer-songwriter album and more a 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: reflective, cosmic, slightly sad, and beautifully strange.

A flawed but glowing gem of the post-hippie haze.

Yes it’s not his best but who doesn’t like more CSN?

It’s a very open hearted, deeply chilled out and vulnerable folk rock record. The pleasingly jarring, conspiratorial lyrics on What are Their Names is the definite highlight for me. Though pretty pleasant, it did get a little tedious the longer it went on. Worst offender for this is the extended length second track Cowboy Movie.

Got excited when I saw the album. First song was kind of off putting and 'Cowboy Movie' was decent and the rest of the album was tame. For the list of talented people on this album its a disappointing one. Originally had this as 2.5 but came to Song with No Words. Now thats some self-indulgent shite. 2/5.

Quite a bit here I liked a lot, the guitar work is minimal but equally interesting. However, it does tend to get a bit too far into the jam band territory for me. I think I'm going to rate it higher than I expected because some of the work is just so good. It's probably a high 3, but I'll round up.

It's great, because it's Crosby. But again ponder what made ^this^ album make the list over, oh I don't know, some revolutionary Japanese band. Or the band that changed the music scene in Uruguay forever.

Soft dad rock. Honestly kinda bland for me. Maybe it had a lot of big names, but still 2*

2.9

Varsin hyvä folk-levy! ehkä jopa nelonen