Review #2 - Manassas

Down the Road - 7.3
Stephen Stills' band Manassas released their second album, Down the Road, in 1973. I didn't know much of Stills' work before listening to this album outside of a handful of songs on a Crosy, Stills, Nash, and Young record I own. I go this album through my fiance's mom amongst a huge box she gave me for Christmas last year.
This album immediately takes hold of you on the first song, "Isn't It About Time." The song settles into a comfortable groove while talking about the evils of war and violence. The groove very much reminded me of The Beta Band. However, the rest of side one really fails to recapture the feeling of this first song and the rest of the side is relatively forgettable. Part of this may be due to the fact that the first song is written by Stills, and he doesn't have another song penned by him alone until "Business on the Street," the final song of side one.
Stills takes more of a center stage on side two of this record. "Do You Remember the Americans" is a forgettable country twang track that starts of the side. The next two songs are much better though, and Stills talks about not needing drugs and about the consequences they can have on "Down the Road" and "City Junkies."
Down The Road has some definite latin roots. "Pensamiento" is entirely in Spanish on side one. "Guaguanco de Vero" has the chorus sung in Spanish on side two. "Guaguanco de Vero" is easily the stronger of the two tunes.
The album closes out with the chill groove of "Rollin' my Stone." All in all, most of the songs here are solid, but none can match the opening force of "Isn't it About Time," although "Rollin' my Stone" and "City Junkies" come the closest to challenging its supremecy. This is a record I will continue to spin from time to time, but I'm not going to annoint it classic status.