Album of the Day #121: STEPHEN STILLS

Title: Stephen Stills

Artist: Stephen Stills

Label: Atlantic

Year: 1970

Songs: Love The One You're With/Do For The Others/Church (Part Of Someone)/Old Times Good Times/Go Back Home/Sit Yourself Down/To A Flame/Black Queen/Cherokee/We Are Not Helpless

Wrtitten by: Stephen Stills

Produced by: Stephen Stills & Bill Halverson for Goldhill Music, Inc. & Jordan Productions, Inc.

Thoughts: This is a fantastic album. The writing is incredible, the vocals are amazing, and, what's really impressive is that the strings work. Stills worked with Arif Mardin on "Church (Part Of Someone)" and "To A Flame" and the cool thing is is that that the strings are really made for these songs. Stills doesn't really overdo it, which is so easy to do. You can really drive a listener crazy by adding useless strings to try to turn a normal song into an epic. Neither song is really epic and the strings don't make it seem that way. It's rather obvious, though, that the album's true power lies at the end. The three-headed punch at the end is truly amazing. "Black Queen" is beautiful, with amazing acoustic guitar work that almost makes you wish he didn't have words to sing. "Cherokee" and "We Are Not Helpless" bleed together perfectly and end the album on a great note.

Of course, this all kicks off with "Love The One You're With", a lovely little single. I honestly hadn't realized that it was a Stills song, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear when I slid the disc into the player. Jimi Hendrix's appearance on "Old Times Good Times" is a typical impressive Hendrix guitar solo and Clapton's appearance on "Go Back Home" is...well...typical amazing Clapton. For those interested, Ringo Starr appears on "To A Flame" and "We Are Not Helpless".

Overall, I would definitely recommend picking this up. It's a really enjoyable record.