With perennial partner
David Crosby in the hoosegow,
Graham Nash was somewhat at loose ends in the mid-'80s. He couldn't resurrect
Crosby, Stills & Nash or
Crosby & Nash, and he had already tried reuniting with
the Hollies. But
Nash had always had a genius for reinvention, which was what led him from one configuration to another and kept him one step ahead of the oldies circuit. Also, despite his reputation for artistic integrity, he had never been above following musical trends or seeking commercial success, as he did, for example, in moving
the Hollies toward psychedelic pop in the late '60s, and as he demonstrated by providing
Crosby, Stills & Nash,
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and
Crosby & Nash with their biggest hit singles. So, it was not really surprising that he would return to his solo career with
Innocent Eyes, his first solo album in six years, or that he would try to make the kind of record that would get played on the radio in 1986. That inevitably meant prominent synthesizer keyboards and loud drum programming, and that was the sound of
Innocent Eyes, announced immediately on the lead-off track, a sort of spy movie in song written by Davitt Siegerson and
Richie Zito called "See You in Prague." The instrumental track might as well have been pulled from a
Donna Summer album of a few years earlier. Not all of
Innocent Eyes was quite that trendy, but
Nash had made his point: At the age of 44, he still felt prepared to compete with contemporary pop stars half his age. It was, as he proclaimed in a song he co-wrote with
Craig Doerge, a "Newday," and he didn't want to be the person he was yesterday. Unfortunately, whatever the arrangements, the ten songs on
Innocent Eyes, four of them not written by
Nash, were not outstanding for the most part. Among the
Nash compositions, "Over the Wall," which appeared to be about the Berlin Wall, was effective; "Sad Eyes" was a pretty love song; and "Keep Away from Me" and "Glass and Steel," both of which sounded like they might have concerned
Crosby, had a strong cautionary appeal. But even though the title song, written by keyboardist
Paul Bliss, saw some radio action, the album didn't have any songs to rank with
Nash's best, and his thin, keening tenor wasn't really a good fit with the synthesizer parts, which tended to overwhelm it. Thus,
Innocent Eyes was at best a minor
Nash album, at worst a misstep. ~ William Ruhlmann