NewCC0086: Stephen Stills
- Stephen Stills (70): **** 1/2
- Live (79): ***
- Stephen Stills 2 (71): ***
- Stills Alone (91): ***
- Down the Road (73): ** 1/2
- Stills (75): **
- Illegal Stills (76): **
- Right by You (84): **
This is a new entry in an up-dated series I'm calling the New Critical Consensus. Several people have requested updates of the older series, and since critical opinions shift, I am revamping the entire system. I am averaging the opinions of several excellent music critics to produce a list of each artist's albums. Rather than using a number system, which was perhaps a bit clunky, I will now be using a five-star system. The albums will be listed in a recommended purchasing order, so new fans will have an idea of where the best place to start buying an artist's work is.
These are not my opinions, although, since I have chosen the critics used (and I'm using many), my taste will perhaps seep through a bit.
Terribly nerdy, I know, but maybe this will help people only now beginning to dabble into certain artists' bodies of work.
Scale:
***** - Masterpiece
**** 1/2 - Classic
**** - Great
*** 1/2 - Good
*** - Above Average
** 1/2 - Average
** - Below Average
* 1/2 - Bad
* - Terrible
1/2 - One of the worst albums ever
What about his two Manassas albums, which were solo in all but name? I'd be curious how they rated because I feel that first Manassas album is almost as good as his self-titled debut, although that debut IS really great...
Johnny Waco
My sources (which certainly can be wrong) tell me that while the second Manassas album, Down the Road, was basically a Stills' solo outing, the first album, Manassas, was more of a group effort. I'm not really sure if they're right, but as a result, I included Down the Road above, but did not include Manassas. I did calculate it, though...
Manassas - ****
So, basically, the critics tend to agree with you!
Good to hear from you, my friend.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs