Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
Looking Forward

 "I look out on peaceful lands With no war nearby, An ocean of shaking hands that grab at the sky..."

"I'm not going back to Woodstock for a While Though I Long to hear that lonesome hippie smile /I'm a million miles away from that helicopter day"

 These two randomly excerpted phrases from "Tonight's the night" can summarize Neil Young's experience within the supergroup CSNY at the key moment of their union: the libertarian utopia of Woodstock. The innocent and idyllic generational intoxication contrasted with the nightmare into which an entire Nation soon plummets.

While essentially being a socio-musical antique, the quintessential supergroup has sometimes reunited with all four musketeers complete: from the 74 tour (with the lost album "Human Highway") to the melancholic and makeshift "American dream", released in 1988 with all the debris of a devastating decade. To date, the latest work labeled Crosby, Still, Nash & Young, "Looking forward" was released in 1999, 30 years after the dawn of their adventure. A journey on welcoming and familiar roads, without, of course, the urgency of yesteryear, but tempered by the warm wind of the unmistakable Californian sound. Emotional scars sometimes emerge, but among these grooves, they do not seem to have significantly marred the stigmata of the Four Letter Band: the blended and magical vocal harmonies, the free spirit embracing intimate social sentiments, the acute sensitivity of a polished Crosby, the intriguing and sinuous sweetness of Nash's touches, the usual Latin-blues thrusts of Stills and a Young who, when not dueling with Stephen in compressed interweavings with the six strings, delivers the usual heart-wrenching ballads.

As always, everyone plays their own things, and the contributions of others often make them special. Stills emerges from two decades of golf, "snow" and dispensable music and, bolstered by the confrontation with Neil, delivers a couple of memorable numbers, apart from the usual Latin aromas of the opening "Faith in me": the torrential wah-wah riffing of "No Tears left" is astounding while in "Seen enough" the Texan shakes off the rust with a corrosive and pugnacious talking, punctuated by Young's blues jabs. Nash is the usual sly cat who delivers a couple of solemn ballads, sumptuously arranged: the epic "Heartland", just slightly marred by a bit of rhetoric and the seductive "Someday". Rhetoric slightly taints Crosby's "Stand and be counted", otherwise enlivened by the dazzling and rich electric guitars of the two old Buffalo Springfield members, while good old David on "Dream for him" offers a touching idyll, expanded into free jazz forms, warm and enveloping like the glow of the sun's rays on Santa Cruz beach.

 The Loner records as many as four original compositions, drawn from the project that would later become "Silver & Gold". Apart from a "Queen of them all" belonging to the catalog of younghian oddities (echoes of 80s synth-pop spoiling an ideal sequel to "The Old Laughing Lady"), the man from Ontario lays down a trio of stellar tracks. "Looking forward" is the flagship piece, skillfully maneuvering the group's legacy in a gentle statement of eternal innocence, made remarkable by an enchanting interweaving of whispered acoustic guitars and, as always, unparalleled vocals. Even better in this sense is the evocative "Slowpoke", in which Neil's voice, almost on the verge of cracking while retracing his life in a journey to the edge of light, alongside Ben Keith's harmonica breaths and pedal steel, delivers a bittersweet gem, and a verse like "When I Was faster I was always behind". Morbidly restless is also the piano phrasing of an "Out of control" that sounds as if Crosby, Stills & Nash were laying their white veil over the dark patina of "Sleeps with angels".

 In conclusion, "Looking forward" is a perfect testament of sounds, ideas, and dreams of an irreproducible group. And as Neil sings among these grooves, "I'm not waiting for times to change, I want to live like a free-roamin' soul".