Crosby, Stills & Nash
Daylight Again

THE REVIEW

After the great success with the public and critics achieved by the eponymous album, the one with the boat on the cover, released in 1977, the fortunate label Crosby, Stills & Nash reappears five years later with the decent "Daylight Again".
Recorded over a long period, from May 1980 to March 1982, the album is so affected by the precarious physical and mental conditions of David Crosby, completely mired in his drug dependency problems, that it seems like a work by Stills and Nash alone, with only sporadic and limited contributions from the friend. Crosby's only real compositional contribution, the splendid "Delta", was added only after the work was completed and was finished only at the express request of his friend Jackson Browne, who had always been close to the old David. It is one of his evocative and suggestive songs, his last emotion in music before slipping for many years into a dark abyss made of serious health problems that would repeatedly bring him close to death. A tragic and borderline situation also described in "Into The Darkness", a dark-toned track composed by Nash for Crosby, referring to the dramatic life the Los Angeles artist was leading at that time.

Although it is very far from the masterpiece with the three sitting on the couch on the 1969 cover and lacks the compositional cohesion of the 1977 eponymous album, "Daylight Again" has more than one reason to be listened to again. The excellent opening of "Turn Your Back On Love" shows Stills handling one of his decidedly successful rock tracks, rich in superb vocal combinations. "Southern Cross" is an absolute classic by the Texan guitarist, enhanced by a well-conceived melody and rich in Latin influences, so much so that it became, over the years, a staple even in Jimmy Buffett's concerts. "Wasted On The Way" is the album's lead single, in which Nash describes the events, the passage of time, and the many opportunities wasted by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Pleasant and delicate, it quickly became one of the group's most beloved pieces. Stills also stands out in the ballad "You Are Alive", ennobled by an extraordinary harmonica solo by Nash. It remains to mention the track that titles the album. It is one of the great acoustic pearls composed in the early Seventies by Stills and recorded for the occasion with the vocal help of Art Garfunkel. The track offers an unexpected, magical finale in which there is room for the unexpected reprise of the old classic "Find The Cost Of Freedom". A return to the glorious past and a beautiful vocal closure that draws the curtain on a work too often unjustly criticized but rich in merits and some great songs.