Buffalo Springfield

What’s That Sound? Complete Albums Rhino

Paranoia on Sunset Strip.

Fifty years after they split up, Buffalo Springfield’s three albums recorded between 1966 and ’68 get a tasty remastering job (but no extras) supervised by Neil Young, who has reinstated the stereo mix of their debut, despite hating it at the time.

An instant hit in Los Angeles, the original quintet – Young, Stephen Stills, Richie Furay,

Bruce Palmer and Dewey

Martin – were furious with the production of their initial recordings, but their fusion of garage-folk rock and the quiet protest anthem For What It’s Worth (hastily added to the 1967 release) have weathered well.

Young’s enigmatically pissedoff Nowadays Clancy Can’t Even Sing was remarkable for its clarity, though Furay took the lead vocal, and his more intrepid Out Of My Mind features the band’s best guitar breaks.

They were even more charged on Buffalo Springfield Again, an ambitious psych-rock masterpiece that teamed Young with pianist/orchestrator Jack Nitzsche on Expecting To Fly, the kind of song he used as a template for After The Gold Rush.

Bursting with egos, Springfield were destined to implode, but innate tension provided the impetus for the anti-fame nugget Mr Soul and the peculiar Broken Arrow, a patchwork of found sound, sleek jazz and crisp military drumming.

On Last Time Around, recorded with the band in disarray and seldom in the same room, the mood switched to country, setting the tone for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and Poco. They were great while they lasted.