CROSBY, STILLS & NASH - Live It Up
ATLANTIC/EAST WEST 7567-82107
Author: Mark Cooper
Journal: Q Magazine
Date: 1990
The freshness of their harmonies enabled CS&N to take 1969 by
storm, 1988's collaboration with Neil Young, American Dream, suggested that their
libertarian philosophies had changed little with the times and here they are again with
several anthems that should keep American AOR stations busy over the next few months.
The individual writing styles remain unmistakable, albeit frequently
assisted here by professional co-writers, and Live It Up is particularly distinguished by
Stills' strongest writing and guitar-playing in many a moon with the acoustic Haven't We
Lost Enough and the shuffle of Got To Keep Open outstanding. Crosby's penchant for jazz
flavourings is evident on the somewhat sanctimonious celebration of children, Yours And
Mine, and Arrows, both of which feature Branford Marsalis on sax, while Nash's knack for
naive but telling choruses survives on House Of Broken Dreams.
CS&N's old idiosyncrasies are somewhat flattened here by a
deliberately commercial approach, but there is no denying that these are their strongest
songs in a decade albeit songs that are inevitably confined to styles that were fully
formed 20 years ago. * * *
