Sometimes it becomes difficult when you don't really fall for an album that's hailed as a masterpiece, which have high rankings on lists on the theme "Best records ever," an album everyone seem to love. You get the feeling that something is wrong with you, that your musical taste is too primitive and / or you don't understand the music, and to express something critical will make the whole (musical) world turn against you. When it comes to Déjà Vu, I'm facing this dilemma.
Déjà Vu was Crosby, Stills & Nash's second album, and they had extended the trio to a quartet with the incorporation of Neil Young. They brotherly share the music input, on each side each member contributes with one song, and on side A we also get a Joni Mitchell cover in the song Woodstock, and the B-side closes with a Stills / Young song. "Brotherly" can probably be discussed since the band members were not particularly good friends at the time of the recording, and rarely spent time together in the studio. Instead, most of the songs were individually recoreded by each member.
The album opens up with a really good Stills song, Carry On. An energetic song, a breath of fresh air and beautiful vocal harmonies. If it would continue in the same way, I would have been a part of the mass that celebrates the album. But the only other song I like on side A is Young's Helpless, even if it sounds a lot like Knocking On Heaven's Door. The rest is pretty boring. Some Country & Western and some standard rock 'n' roll, nothing above the ordinary. It's a little fun that Jerry Garcia plays steel guitar on Teach Your Children, though, even if the song is so-so.
The B-side is more even, the only song I really don't like Nash's Our House, but that doesn't mean I love the rest. The other songs are OK, but not more. The title song is a little different in that it doesn't have the same verse, verse, chorus structure. A little more loose at the edges and airy, in a positive way. 4 + 20 is nice, but certainly not better than what Stills made on his following solo album. Likewise, Young's Country Girl is perfectly OK, but he has also done much better songs on his own albums. The record ends with the somewhat bombastic Everybody I Love You, again, not bad, but not a spot on the music's absolute top.
In summary, Déjà Vu is quite an average album. Personally, I would not rank it high on my "Best albums ever" list, or bring it to a deserted island for that matter. I suspect that if four completely unknown guys made this album, it had not been hailed in the same way. But with these four musical giants at the controls, the album will automatically be raised to the skies, regardless of the result (within certain limits, of course). Alternatively, it's me that there's something wrong with.
Tracklist
Side A
1. Carry On 4:26
2. Teach Your Children 2:53
3. Almost Cut My Hair 4:31
4. Helpless 3:33
5. Woodstock 3:54
Side B
1. Déjà Vu 4:12
2. Out House 2:59
3. 4 + 20 2:04
4. Country Girl 5:11
5. Everybody I Love You 2:21
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