Buffalo Springfield “Buffalo Springfield Again” (1967)

Just a little over 30 minutes long, and it goes in about as many directions. Neil Young’s songs don’t seem to belong on the same record as those of Stills or Furay; actually, they don’t seem to belong in the same universe. Yet the record as a whole doesn’t seem messy at all, but powerful, even focused, by its diversity. I used to love the Young songs — even the psychedelic weirdness of “Broken Arrow” — but these days I find myself attracted to the Stills songs, which are some of his best. “Bluebird” in particular manages to seem both sleek and cryptic at the same time, and the Stills-Young guitar team is a wonder (take that, Yardbirds!). Really, the only clunker is the Dewey Martin-sung “Good Time Boy”, a fairly terrible Otis parody (but at least it adds soul to the band’s armory). Everything else works, even “Mr Soul”, on which Neil borrows a riff from the Rolling Stones. And not for the last time, either. –Brad