Crosby Stills Nash & Young

Those who expected a nostalgia trip on CSNY’s last tour in 2006 were undoubtedly surprised by the overt anti-war stance around which the quartet built the show, anchored by material from Young’s then-current Living With War. The division this created within audiences has been captured on Young’s just-released documentary of the tour and to a lesser extent, on this companion album of the same name. While it was certainly admirable for such a venerable group to make such a strong statement, the main problem with Déjà Vu Live is, as has been the case with every latter-day CSNY project, the insurmountable creative gap between Young and the others. One glance at the song selection bears this out: all of Young’s tracks are from Living With War, while the others can only try to update their Vietnam-era glories, such as "For What It’s Worth” and "Find The Cost Of Freedom.” These songs still retain a lot of power but it makes for a rather lopsided listening experience, especially when the classics are placed alongside Young’s rants like "Let’s Impeach The President,” complete with George Bush sound bite samples. Déjà Vu Live may be a timely example of how polarized American society has become leading up to this fall’s election but musically, it adds little to what Young has already contributed to the discussion.