Buffalo Springfield Again
Album review

The Buffalo Springfield have once again produced a musically and vocally interesting album. The songs on this album are not always as distinctive as those on their first effort, but they are done well. What Buffalo Springfield Again, though, obviously lacks is cohesiveness.

Diversity is an advantage but sometimes goes too far and becomes disunity. This album sounds as if every member of the group is satisfying his own musical needs. Each of them has produced songs in his own bag. Together there is no blend, only a rather obvious alienation among the compositions.

Richie Furay has produced some pretty compositions that are suitable for his voice, such as "Sad Memory," and for Dewey Martin, the drummer, which comes off as an affected attempt at the Tamla-Motown sound with a touch of Otis Redding.

Neil Young, a very capable and original guitarist, should be strongly commended for his composition, "Mr. Soul," a gutsy contemporary blues. The song hangs together well. His second composition, "Broken Arrow," is an attempt at the latest trend in contemporary songwriting - the Beatle-esque freak-out. The song is over six minutes long. It goes through changed of tone, rhythm, instrumentation and vocal quality. The song begins with the screams of fans and a rather raspy vocal of "Mr. Soul" and moves to a slower tempo and a different song. Although he incorporates some excellent string tracks and piano tracks, the song, nevertheless, is unsuccessful. It doesn't hold up; it becomes tiresome and loses impact.

Steve Stills' songs and arrangements dominate the album. "Bluebird" is an earthy, original bluesy number with great drive. At the end of the track Stills changes the style, turning it into a sort of folky banjo-picking tune. In "Rock & Roll Woman" the group is at its vocal best and the instrumental track is perfectly coordinated.

Buffalo Springfield Again is hardly a failure. Far from it. It is simply a very good, but not great, second effort by a highly talented group.