Crosby, Stills & Nash

Not unpleasant but got a bit bored with it by the end

There was only one track of this on Spotify but that’ll do for me thanks

Beautiful album. Almost all the songs here are classics that worked their way into my mind. Their vocal harmonies are beautiful and there's lovely guitar playing throughout. The acoustic and sparse songs mixed with more conventional 60's folk rock also really adds to the variety of the album. Certified classic.

Unparalleled sense of harmony. Glad I got to see them live at Lincoln Center years ago.

I’m at a 5.

Thankfully, C, S, & N are still pretty damn good without Y. I don’t think I have much to wax poetic about here – this is just a great album. Sure, a good chunk of it is mired in relationship issues, and the variety of styles on each track isn’t as strong as what was on Deja Vu (lots of acoustic tracks here, little less pure rock than I was expecting), but the quality of the songwriting, and the emotion their voices are able to pull out of those lyrics, especially in the harmonizations, is really, really strong, and really enjoyable to listen to. Even though some of the more personal context of each track is kind of lost to time (I don’t think anyone’s really itching to read about Judy Collins & Stephen Stills anymore), the imagery in the lyricism is so good that it really can apply to any kind of relationship.

I truly don’t think there’s a single bad track here, and even its weakest one (You Don’t Have to Cry, just for the repeated lyrics) is still pretty good. It’s not a flawless album by any means, but for 3 people to come together, each members of their own bands, and drop an album with this much cohesion & quality, on a first try, is pretty damn remarkable. It’s the type of chemistry you can’t really teach, and arguably the blueprint for other “supergroups” that followed throughout the 70s. While I imagine Neil Young’s inclusion muddled that chemistry for a bit for years afterward, this album is a great showcase of why Neil Young wanted to join these 3 in the first place. I think it’s no less than a 4, and for my tastes, a very easy 5.

The folk supergroup playing great songs in 3 part harmony. You'd have to have a heart three sizes t small to hate on this.

I actually liked this better than the much revered Deja Vu

always been a sucker for this type of folk rock

Suite Judy Blue Eyes is a 5+ Star song. I used to hate it, but now it’s a favorite. The rest of this album is very good, but too same-y for 5 stars. Deja Vu blows this overall album out of the water.

The only record CSN made as a trio before picking up Neil Young. I liked them better as a quartet. This was good, but kind of boring. CSN on this album are closer to hipster folk than folk rock, which they embraced with the introduction of Neil Young.

Favourite songs: Teach Your Children, Wooden Ships, Helplessly Hoping, Pre-Road Downs, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, Marrakesh Express

Least favourite songs: Guinnevere, Lady of the Island

3/5

I always think I don’t like this trio (unless Neil is involved) but this is a great album. The hits are timeless classics that I’ve known since childhood. Even the deeper cuts are really interesting. I don’t always respond well to the three-part harmony on the vocals, but I have some respect for it. Hard to dislike this honestly

I am a sucker for a glorious harmony and this has them by the sackload. If they'd kept up the standard of the first couple of tracks, it would undoubtedly be 5 stars, but drops down to a 4 as there's some filler here for sure.

1969, le "Summer of Love" a la gueule de bois, Charles Manson n'est pas loin, la guerre du Vietnam s'enlise dans la boue et le rêve hippie commence sérieusement à sentir le roussi. Et au milieu de ce chaos, trois types, rescapés de trois des plus grands groupes de l'époque, décident de s'asseoir sur un canapé élimé pour la postérité et de redéfinir le folk-rock.

Le concept de "supergroupe" était né et quel casting. David Crosby, viré des Byrds pour son ego et ses prises de position politiques. Stephen Stills, le génie multi-instrumentiste orphelin de Buffalo Springfield et Graham Nash, l'Anglais, transfuge des Hollies, qui apportait avec lui une science de la mélodie pop typiquement britannique.

Sur le papier, ça avait tout du plan foireux, de la réunion d'egos surdimensionnés destinée à imploser en plein vol. Dans les faits, leur premier album éponyme est une démonstration de pure alchimie.

Il faut le dire tout de suite, ce disque est d'une beauté formelle quasi parfaite. Le son, c'est celui de Laurel Canyon, de la Californie ensoleillée, des guitares acoustiques qui scintillent et, surtout, de ces harmonies vocales. Trois voix totalement différentes qui s'entrelacent pour n'en former qu'une, une entité céleste qui semble flotter au-dessus des instruments. Techniquement, c'est irréprochable, c'est le genre de disque que les ingénieurs du son doivent encore écouter aujourd'hui en pleurant de joie.

Et puis, il y a les chansons et nous ne pouvons pas parler de cet album sans évoquer le monument qu'est "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes". Sept minutes et vingt-cinq secondes, une déclaration d'amour épique et labyrinthique de Stills à la chanteuse Judy Collins. C'est une mini-symphonie folk, avec ses changements de rythme, ses ruptures, ses accélérations... C'est prétentieux, c'est long, et c'est absolument magnifique. C'est le genre de morceau qui justifie à lui seul l'existence d'un groupe.

Mais l'album ne se résume pas à ce monolithe. Nash apporte sa fraîcheur pop avec le très efficace "Marrakesh Express", une chanson simple et joyeuse. Crosby, lui, est dans un registre plus sombre, plus introspectif, son "Long Time Gone" est un réquisitoire puissant contre l'assassinat de Robert Kennedy, un morceau tendu, plein d'une colère sourde qui tranche avec la douceur ambiante.

Alors voilà, l'album est un classique, une pierre angulaire du son "West Coast", et il figure en bonne place dans ce projet "1001 Albums". Et pourtant... c'est un excellent disque, mais pas un chef-d'oeuvre absolu.

Pourquoi ?

Parce que c'est un disque d'une propreté presque clinique, c'est le son de musiciens incroyablement doués, en pleine possession de leurs moyens, mais qui restent dans une zone de confort. C'est le son de types qui ont réussi, et ça s'entend. C'est magnifique, mais c'est un peu trop lisse, un peu trop poli, ça manque de cette folie qui transforme les très bons disques en monuments intouchables.

Et la preuve éclatante de ce qui manque sur cet album c'est tout simplement l'album suivant. "Déjà Vu" est bien supérieur et la raison a un nom : Neil Young.

L'arrivée de Young dans le groupe, c'est le grain de sable dans la mécanique parfaitement huilée. C'est la distorsion dans le son acoustique, c'est la voix nasillarde et fragile qui vient briser la perfection des harmonies. Young a amené avec lui le doute, la noirceur, l'électricité sale, la "mauvaise conscience" du rock'n'roll. Il a apporté le chaos nécessaire pour que le génie du trio originel se sublime et atteigne un autre niveau.

Ce premier album de Crosby, Stills & Nash est donc une oeuvre magnifique mais incomplète. C'est le prélude somptueux à un chef-d'oeuvre. Une introduction parfaite, mais qui laisse un peu sur sa faim. On admire le talent, la virtuosité, mais on attend le coup de poing.

Le coup de poing, ce sera Neil Young qui le donnera

Some pleasant parts. My issue is that, though the harmonies are nice, there are vocal harmonies on absolutely everything. It's all very tasteful. Maybe a bit dated?

The more I listen, the more I think of Andy Bernard from The Office. Constantly searching for a vocal harmony.

Crosby, Stills & Nash is a pretty good album. A lot of the time while i was listening to this album, I felt like these guys had a very similar vocals to the ones of Simon & Garfunkel (they really did influence a lot, huh). In fact, this album really did feel like a Simon & Garfunkel album just with more country influences that those guys ever really had. The vocals, music and lyrics were all pretty solid here and there isn't even a single bad song on this album. This album was generally a pretty solid run but i do think that this group would be at their best when Neil Young got involved.
Best Song: Wooden Ships
Worst Song: Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

Incredible vocal harmonies and some great songs. Mostly acoustic guitar accompaniment, but some light psych touches from the bass and sitars (?) and the occasional electric guitar that all adds dynamism. But the real action is in the singing. Very high highs, but kind of dull lows. I thought this was wimpy and boring for the longest time, but lately have really come to appreciate this subgenre of chilled out hippy country rock more and more.

Favorites: helplessly hoping, wooden ships, suite Judy blue eyes, everybody's talking

Solid but not amazing. I like CS&N (probably prefer CSN&Y), but this is a below avg. offering. 3.5/5

Not the coolest of bands back in the day (maybe it's the name?) but they did bang out hit after hit. Great singalongs!

It's not bad, but come on, so many generic records on this list. I get that old music is good but not that good to include so many records that sound almost the same.

I almost like this a lot more than I actually do. It has great harmonies and melodic structure to put it among the greats, but there is a shallow softness to it that no doubt inspired acts like America to get together and truly embrace the sound arguably coined by this and some Byrds records. However, that just makes this album sound simple for the most part in retrospect. My favorite parts of this album are when Graham Nash comes on and delivers his more oddball tunes, as they have a unique style to them that feel like they inspired the twee sound of the 90s, but a lot of the album just feels like it is missing something. You may be thinking "Then listen to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young,' but I already tried that one, and my opinions come out the same. It's decent, it has merit, but I don't think it stands up much against other '69 offerings, not that it was trying to do so in the first place.