Talk about complete.
If the idea of a three-disc anthology compiling all of Graham Nash's music over the years might have seemed an overly ambitious one, the release of Reflections effectively shoots down any such notion.
It's always been sort of easy to overlook Nash though. Despite the fact that his is that high voice you hear most prominently on all of those CSN and CSNY harmonies — and that he wrote or co-wrote many of their best-known hits — just look who he's surrounded by. When you hitch your career wagon to guys like David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Neil Young it can be very easy to be overlooked. That's why this 64-song, three-disc set is such a surprise on an initial listen. You always knew Nash wrote a fair amount of all those great songs — but who knew there were this many of them?
Reflections chronicles Nash's career from the early sixties to the present in chronological order, beginning with the Hollies, and ending with "In Your Name," a previously unreleased song recorded last fall. Those are the bookends of this set. But most of what you'll find here represents the work Nash has done with his best known and most important band, as in the various incarnations of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
For those who haven't followed Nash's career, it can all be a little confusing since this means you get tracks from CSN, CSNY, and the numerous duo recordings he did with David Crosby as Crosby/Nash. But for those who own any of the recordings by Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young and whoever, or even the CSN box set, the idea of another retrospective box might also seem to be a bit redundant. Reflections likewise avoids this trap by including no less than 32 alternate mixes or otherwise previously unreleased tracks. That's roughly half of what's here, making this an essential release for all of you completists out there.
As interesting as some of the previously unreleased material here is — songs like "Behind The Shades" (written for Roy Orbison) as well as previously unheard CSN tracks like "Lonely Man' — the real joy of listening to Reflections lies in the rediscovery of all of the great Nash songs you already know. Not to mention the realization that there are so many of them.
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