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All tracks have been digitally remastered using HDCD technology.
Although this album was made amid the fragmentation of Buffalo Springfield, that fact is not apparent in retrospect. On the contrary, there is an appealingly gentle quality about the group's third and final album. As Jim Messina and Richie Furay (later to join together in Poco) took control of the group, they developed a pronounced country-rock feel. Young's premier contribution is "I Am a Child" and the then-prolific Stills hits the button with four gems: the plea for world unity, "Uno Mundo;" the song of a fugitive, "Four Days Gone;" "Special Care;" and the original "Questions." LAST TIME AROUND is a much better album than we could have expected from a band about to burst apart.
Amazon.com
One of America's seminal 1960s rock bands, Buffalo Springfield's brief career yielded just three studio albums before its various members splintered into a variety of successful solo career and new group endeavors (including Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Poco, and Loggins & Messina). In fact, one of its chief architects bolted before this, their last album, was even completed. Fortunately for both the band and their fans, Neil Young left behind a pair of pop gems--the band showcase "On the Way Home" and the country-tinged "I Am a Child." Stephen Stills largely picked up the slack in Young's absence, penning a slate of tunes as ambitious as they were eclectic (his "Questions" here eventually evolving into CSNY's "Carry On"), while Richie Furay weighs in with three tunes, including the clear Poco precursor "Kind Woman." A bit more pop-oriented than its predecessor, the often haunting Buffalo Springfield Again, but nearly as memorable. --Jerry McCulley
AMG
The internal dissension that was already eating away at Buffalo Springfield's dynamic on their second album came home to roost on their third and final effort, Last Time Around. This was in some sense a Buffalo Springfield album in name but not in spirit, as the songwriters sometimes did not even play on cuts written by other members of the band. Neil Young's relatively slight contribution was a particularly tough blow. He wrote only two of the songs (though he did help Richie Furay write "It's So Hard to Wait"), both of which were outstanding: the plaintive "I Am a Child" and the bittersweet "On the Way Home" (sung by Furay, not Young, on the record). The rest of the ride was bumpier: Stephen Stills' material in particular was not as strong as it had been on the first two LPs, though the lovely Latin-flavored "Pretty Girl Why," with its gorgeous guitar work, is one of the group's best songs. Furay was developing into a quality songwriter with the orchestrated "The Hour of Not Quite Rain" and his best Springfield contribution, the beautiful ballad "Kind Woman," which became one of the first country-rock standards. But it was a case of not enough, too late, not only for Furay, but for the group as a whole.
SPOILER! |
See also:
Buffalo Springfield - Again
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