CSN featured strong writing from all three members, the last time for seven years that the band would compose songs and handle vocals without major assistance from outside sources.

Many of Stills' songs on the album echo his marital problems,[4] with "Dark Star" returning to the Latin rhythms he had favored all the way back to his Buffalo Springfield days.

The album was released for compact disc an initial time in the 1980s,[5] then again at Ocean View Digital from the original tapes and reissued on September 20, 1994.

Cash Box said that "Fair Game" "combines a snappy Latin rhythm, neatly interlocking harmonies, and layers of Stephen Stills' thoughtful acoustic guitar work.

[10] Record World called "Fair Game" a "mid-tempo Stills song with samba touches, with the trio's trademark vocal harmonies again standing out.