Graham Nash: Songs For Survivors : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Songs for Survivors, meant as a companion piece to Songs for Beginners -- which the sixty-year-old Nash made more than thirty years ago -- shows that his clear vocals are unchanged from the Hollies days without a loss of pitch or timbre. The eight well-crafted originals are simultaneously introspective and optimistic, a combination that saves "Lost Another One" (a musing about how many of his contemporaries have recently died) from becoming maudlin or mournful. And while many in his age group find it necessary to reinterpret their old chestnuts, Nash turns his talents to Linda and Richard Thompson's haunting "Pavanne." First recorded in 1978, this portrait of an assassin who kills for "the pleasure of the moment" has a spookier meaning today. The low point is "Liar's Nightmare," an eight-minute narrative set to the same folk tune as Bob Dylan's "Masters of War." It's not actually bad, it just takes up space that would be better used by three more of his country-flavored harmonica-driven originals.

CHARLES BERMANT
(JULY 30, 2002)