The internal dissension that was already eating away at
Buffalo Springfield's dynamic on their second album came home to roost on their third and final effort,
Last Time Around. This was in some sense a
Buffalo Springfield album in name but not in spirit, as the songwriters sometimes did not even play on cuts written by other members of the band.
Neil Young's relatively slight contribution was a particularly tough blow. He wrote only two of the songs (though he did help
Richie Furay write
"It's So Hard to Wait"), both of which were outstanding: the plaintive
"I Am a Child" and the bittersweet
"On the Way Home" (sung by
Furay, not
Young, on the record). The rest of the ride was bumpier:
Stephen Stills' material in particular was not as strong as it had been on the first two LPs, though the lovely
Latin-flavored
"Pretty Girl Why," with its gorgeous guitar work, is one of the group's best songs.
Furay was developing into a quality songwriter with the orchestrated
"The Hour of Not Quite Rain" and his best
Springfield contribution, the beautiful
ballad "Kind Woman," which became one of the first
country-rock standards. But it was a case of not enough, too late, not only for
Furay, but for the group as a whole. ~ Richie Unterberger
