Search - Crosby Stills Nash & Young :: Deja Vu

This review relates to this product - 2008 Japanese issue

Roderick Keech | Australia | 01/05/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Firstly, I don't know what a review from 2005 is doing under this product description. This is not an adverse comment on the review, merely a statement that it is irrelevant to this 2008 Japanese SHM-CD release. Universal Music KK and Warner Music Japan have released in limited quantities pressings called SHM-CD or Super High Quality, which supposedly gives unprecedented clarity of sound and requires no special player. Unfortunately, the source material they have used is second rate, and all you get, in most cases, is a clearer version of a bad master. In this particular case, the sound is muddy and has no sparkle or dynamic. If you compare some of the tracks that have been remastered and appear on Crosby Stills & Nash Greatest Hits The Greatest Hits and Neil Young's Greatest Hits Greatest Hits you will hear how they should sound. Why would anyone pay over US$40 for a poorly mastered and muddy sounding SHM-CD when they can buy the standard versions cheaper and get excellent sound ? I have yet to find a case to substatiate the claims of Universal and Warner Japan regarding this new format (they released Carly Simon's 'No Secrets' using a 37 year old master !). EMI have their own 'new' format to extract higher prices from buyers called HQ-CD (High Quality CD) and Sony Japan have just released their take, called Blu-Spec - and no, it has nothing to do with Blu-Ray players. Take my advice and buy the local product that has been carefully remastered. I have yet to hear a 'great' CD remaster of Deja Vu, despite its classic status. We wait in hope."

Perfecto mundo!

running_man | Chesterfield Twp., MI | 07/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Deja vu is the quintessential album of the 1960's counterculture. No less than 7 cuts from the disc, 'Carry On', 'Teach Your Children', 'Almost Cut My Hair', 'Woodstock', 'Our House', 'Deja vu', and 'Everybody I Love You' can be considered poster children for all the New Left stood for and aspired to in the late 1960's and early 1970's. It is a remarkable disc, equaled only by the debut Crosby, Stills and Nash LP in its social relevance, and in pioneering and defining the folk-rock genre.

Each of the four artists in this, the quintessential rock 'supergroup', contributes two of the most essential compositions in their careers. The album was particularly noteworthy for the writings of David Crosby ('Almost Cut My Hair' and 'Deja vu') and Graham Nash ('Teach Your Children' and 'Our House'), and the stunning background vocal contributions they provide on the Stills and Young compositions, excepting the solo acoustic '4 + 20'.



Stills, who played most of the instruments on the debut CSN LP, backs off a bit to leave room for Dallas Taylor on drums and Greg Reeves on bass. Jerry Garcia and John Sebastian are also credited with instrumental contributions. In addition to the stark '4 + 20', Stills reaches back into his past, culling lyrics from his Buffalo Springfield classic, 'Questions', to serve as a coda on the opener, 'Carry On', and springs forward into his future to graft lyrics that would open 'Know You Got To Run' from his second solo LP into 'Everybody I Love You'. Neil is given a rare co-songwriting credit on 'Everybody...' with Stills (can you name another?). In spite of their long association, they weren't exactly Lennon and McCartney!



Despite all the aforementioned blockbuster songs, CS&N were apparently insecure in releasing the disc without adding Y. Neil offers the classic composition 'Helpless' and the underplayed medley 'Country Girl', which stands high among Young's finest works. Top off the collection with the hyper, grinding, high-flying rendition of the Joni Mitchell anthem, 'Woodstock', and you have one of the finest rock albums ever produced.



The album is a near perfect mix in terms of musical styles and subject matter. Though thought of today as somewhat stereotypical in personifying the 'hippie mystique', the album 'Deja vu' is representative of the ideals youth held, or at least liked to think they held, in the midst of the various social revolutions going on around them. It is nothing short of essential to any comprehensive collection of modern rock music, and to an understanding of the era and a generation.





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The Best Ever

Prada | 08/20/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Deja Vu has been, is, and always will be the best representation of "what's goin' on" (excuse the pun) in music and America during the late '60s to early '70s. Reassuringly dated in some places and positively timeless in others, DVu takes me back to my much-less-jaded self. Try it yourself if in need of a little reminder."