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This was a hard one to even put in the CD player. Coming nearly three decades after their last duo studio album, the thoroughly tepid Whistling Down the Wire, this double disc was a make or break deal for this longtime fan. Given the fiascos wrought with Stephen Stills and Neil Young, hopes were not especially high. The good news is it's not awful. The bad news is it's not very good either.
It starts promisingly enough with a fine pair of songs by Crosby's formerly estranged son James Raymond but quickly descends into b-grade material from Nash and Crosby. Most of it sort of approximates what we remember them sounding like but there's an x-factor missing. Maybe all the years have softened their anger and despair and slowed their willingness to descend into the darkness so readily. Hell, that's what one wishes for a good friend, but in a musician it's a little less endearing. Some cuts, like "Jesus of Rio," are bloated with good intentions, but fail as songs.
Musically, this is an acoustic-leaning amalgamation of Crosby's CPR band (Crosby, Jeff Pevar and Raymond) and Nash's lukewarm solo album from 2003. There's still FAR too much mushy keyboards and electric guitars, and syrupy arrangements. What most people seem to want is a redux of their early '70s sound, a lean and intimate setting like buddy Joni Mitchell's Blue. Even a fuller band sound like their still-amazing 1972 sophomore pairing works if there's real passion behind the notes. The new material seems too comfortable, overly polished, relaxed to a point that makes you wonder if they really care about making records anymore. Which of course begs the question, "Why should listeners care if it's not clear they do?"
What we really want from them is two guitars and two yearning voices. We want to hear what they've learned during the 28 years since they last sat down with just the two of them. Even if they'd just redone older numbers we could have heard how their voices have changed, how different lines stick out at new angles. But instead we get 20 tracks that say very little and stay only moments in one's memory. I still maintain that their early '70s work is some of the most stirring and emotionally tactile music ever created. Their gift for harmony and delicacy when discussing all the disunity humans face was, and remains, revolutionary. That they couldn't rekindle that same flame now isn't a surprise, but it is a disappointment.
Dennis Cook
JamBase | California
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