Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield

Come looking for reviews of a pressing (not the music) and find two inane reviews of the music. Leave music reviews to AllMusic.

There’s no doubt about it, Buffalo Springfield were loaded with a serious amount of individual talent, and based on that alone, I’d expected the album to be a breakout classic by a group of young guys who’d known each other on and off for quite some time. Yet on hearing the album back in ’66, and trying to reemerge myself in the release again and again over the years, I’ve found that Buffalo Springfield seem to be a rather overrated band, with that overrated-ness being based on individual talent alone, and not on what the group achieved as a unit.

Certainly there were some fine numbers such as “Sit Down I Think I Love You,” and later the single “For What It’s Worth” would shiver the world with it’s low-keyed brilliant intoxication … though what the band brought to fruition was not on par with either of those songs as a whole. This album, delivered at the end of the year in 1966, for me, came across rather disjointed, as if most of the pieces of the puzzle didn’t fit, and had been forced into place, where the material offered little continuity, and even less that was memorable.

Of course there were others such as Stephen Stills who would filter in and out of this band adding their own personal vision, but again, there was never instilled a communal vision and direction that listeners could put their fingers on and make a concise connection. All this meant that the sum of the bands parts was greater than its total, with all of the members spiriting their best material to their back pockets, knowing that it would be much more valuable to them later as solo artists, or within groups where they as individuals would conduct the outcome and course they chose to tread.

You’re going to hear some fine Americana that’s been laced with British invasion and psychedelia influences on all of their albums, though you are never going to hear a brilliant album that stands as marker, indicating that Buffalo Springfield had passed this way. The proof of that is that most people stumble onto Buffalo Springfield while walking the cat backwards, where they’ve been acquainted with the work of Neil Young, The Byrds, The Richie Furay Band, Loggins & Messina or other incarnations of its members, and reach back to a set of roots, that while important on some level, was merely a jumping off point for the band as a whole.

*** The Fun Facts: The band’s name Buffalo Springfield was taken from a brand of steamrollers.

Review by Jenell Kesler