| The original
1968 lineup of Richie Furay, Jim Messina, Randy Meisner, George
Grantham, and Rusty Young, which never got to record (Meisner
quit on the eve of their first session), finally goes into the
studio, and it's as though 20 years dissolves away.
The singing is impeccable, the
playing awesome — maybe a little too good — and unlike a lot
of reunion projects of this kind, the songs are as good as any
the group ever recorded, with a couple ("When It All Began,"
"Call It Love") that would belong on any truly honest best-of
collection.
The only flaw, if that's what
it is, is the decidedly modern sound and production — the group's
country-rock sound is nearly compromised by the modern engineering,
which gives the drums too much presence and the guitars a too
much volume.The playing
is loud and precise, and often beautiful, but also at time mechanical
and soulless compared with the group's old recordings; the exceptionally
passionate singing more than compensates for this flaw, however.
It might have been interesting
to see the re-formed group do a couple of the songs off of the
first album that they never got to do as a quintet, but the
point behind that had long ago been made by the quartet that
did record.A must-own
alongside the MCA best-of and the original eight Epic albums
(or the Epic double-disc Forgotten Trail anthology). David Cole
was the overall producer, but Richard Marx signed his name as
producer to one of the best tracks here, "Nothin' to Hide,"
which he also co-wrote.
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