Released October 26, 1999 Label Reprise | Recorded 1996 - 1999 Length 53:17 | |
Producer Crosby, Stills, Nash & YoungJoe Vitale, Ben Keith, Stanley Johnston | ||
Looking Forward is the third and final studio album by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (CSNY). It is the eighth studio album when CSNY's albums are conflated with those by the trio of Crosby, Stills & Nash. It was released on Reprise Records in 1999, peaked at #26 on the Billboard 200 with total sales nearing 400,000. It is currently out of print, although it is available on Spotify.
Contents
Background and recording
Crosby, Stills & Nash toured extensively through the 1990s, playing almost as many shows as they had in the previous decades combined. Since their previous album, no new solo albums were forthcoming from Stephen Stills or Graham Nash, but David Crosby had discovered his adult son James Raymond, the two starting a band with Jeff Pevar yielding an album in 1998. However, the band's relationship with Atlantic Records had soured, partly over a lack of push for After the Storm, but mostly over the perception that the label now had very little interest in the group when they had made the company millions during the 1970s heyday. They terminated their contract with Atlantic in 1997, and began to record CSN tracks out of pocket without a record deal. Working with Stills to compile the Buffalo Springfield retrospective box set, Neil Young became intrigued with these CSN sessions. Playing on some tracks in process, Young brought in three recordings he had earmarked for one of his own albums, "Looking Forward," "Slowpoke," and "Out of Control." The possibility of a new CSNY album attracted the attention of Young's label Reprise Records, which duly released the album once completed.
"Faith in Me" and "No Tears Left" were recorded in Ga Ga's Room in Los Angeles early on in the recording process. "Stand and Be Counted," "Seen Enough," "Dream for Him" and "Sanibel" were recorded at Conway Recording Studios in Hollywood. "Heartland" was recorded at Ocean Studios in Burbank, California. The remainder of the album was recorded at Neil Young's facility, Redwood Digital, in Woodside, California.
Reception
Looking Forward received somewhat better reviews than its two 1990s predecessors and perhaps even the previous CSNY album, American Dream. It has sold approximately 370,000 copies in the United States to date; better than the 300,000 of Live It Up or the 200,000 of After the Storm, but a far cry from the band's multi-platinum 1970s. Like the songs on their previous three albums, none of these found a permanent place in the group's repertoire, although Crosby would return occasionally to "Dream for Him" with both CSN and his own bands. Crosby and Nash managed a fourth studio album as a duo in 2004, however there has been no new group album in the 21st century. In light of Crosby's remarks (and apology) concerning Young's divorce and hook-up with Daryl Hannah, in addition to Young's abandonment of the Buffalo Springfield tour in 2012, the likelihood of any kind of CSNY activity in the future seems remote.
To promote the album, in the year 2000 CSNY hit the road with the CSNY2K Tour, the quartet's first since the doom tour of 1974.