STARSAILOR

Vocal extravaganza Tim Buckley had lost all of it's fans with Lorca, an avant-garde record, with almost no folk influences anymore. This didn't change his direction however and here we are standing at the highlight of Tim's career; Starsailor. This was not a commercial succes, but fans and Tim Buckley - the man himself, see this record as his peak. The songs are shorter and somewhat more effective then it's predecessor: a masterpiece was created!

"Come here Woman", "I Woke up", "Jungle Fire" and "The Healing Festival" are all avant-garde songs, which show some rare mixture in sound of Capain Beefheart and Klaus Schulze a-like space music. Buckley's acrobatic vocals are free to attack the listener and to make weird voice effects. In comparison with Don van Vliet, Arthur Brown and Peter Hammill, Tim Buckley surely wins the price of the most extreme vocalist with it's high range and daring experimentation. The instruments are dark and brooming and have a very loose structure.

Not all of the songs are as extreme as those I have mentioned. On Starsailor we do also find a semi-french chanson, which is actually really good and brings some rest for the ears. "Song to the Siren" is a nice ballad to close the first side.

The titletrack may be the most experimental track of the record. This is a spacetrip created with echoing vocals, panicky vocals and weird/insane vocals: the total expression of Tim Buckley's vocal ideas. The performing is excellent!

The ending track reminds me of Pulp Fiction's starting track, but rapidly changes into a happy latin-rock song with a free-role of a trumpet. This works out really great and doesn't left you with the - sometimes heavy - feelings.

This is an avant-garde masterpiece. It surprises me how so many crazy ideas on one record does not sound so difficult and leaves me behind with a big smile on my face. Maybe the first time listening was a bit disturbing, but now it is one of my favourite records: five stars!