Tracks
- Carry On
- Teach Your Children
- Almost Cut My Hair
- Helpless
- Woodstock
- Déjà Vu
- Our House
- 4 + 20
- Country Girl: Whiskey Boot Hill/Down, Down, Down/Country Girl (I Think You're Pretty)
- Everybody I Love You
Déjà Vu is a pretty album. The music is folkie rock. Crosby, Stills and Nash have added Neil Young for this, their second album. Neil Young provides a heavier, grittier guitar sound to the music. Despite the "grittiness" Young adds, this album is a more polished version of their debut album.
This songs on this album sound great. There are lots of good melodies, good bass lines and guitar playing. What's strange about this album is that CSN&Y really aren't a band. Eight of the songs are written solely by one member, i.e. each band member contributed two songs. Woodstock is a Joni Mitchell contribution. The last song is credited to Stills and Young.
Furthermore, only Woodstock was performed with the whole band in the studio at the same time. The rest of the songs were built piecemeal. Even if these facts aren't factored in, this album certainly doesn't have much unity.
Teach Your Children and Our House suggest an end to the hippie era, the latter more so than the former, whereas Woodstock and Almost Cut My Hair seem to affirm the hippie ethos, this time the former more so than the latter. Then, Young's songs have nothing to do with either.
So, there's no doubt that this is a great album that's worth listening to, but unfortunately the songs don't cohere into an "album". That means I don't think it really belongs on the 1001 Albums list.
All the songs are good, but the stand outs are: Carry On, Teach Your Children, Almost Cut My Hair, Helpless, Woodstock, 4 + 20 and Country Girl.
★★★★★★★★☆☆
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