Send "Tim Buckley " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Independent |
 The sleevenote to Tim Buckley's debut album fancifully described him as "a kind of quintessence of nouvelle" – a ludicrously high expectation to place on a 19-year-old's shoulders, but one that Buckley was to fulfill time and again, changing his approach radically from album to album, taking in folk-rock, art-rock, folk-jazz, avant-garde jazz, erotic funk and AOR soul.As the bonus disc included here of early demos and scrappy recordings by his high-school band The Bohemians shows, by his debut Buckley had already begun this process, shifting in a few months from garage-rock whelp to distinctive folkie troubadour, a metamorphosis aided by Jack Nitszche's string arrangements, Van Dyke Parks's baroque'n'roll keyboards and Lee Underwood's limpid lead guitar....full text |
| Popmatters |
| Singer-songwriter Tim Buckley recorded his first album in two days back in 1966 when he was only 19-years-old. The self-titled disc earned Buckley a reputation as an eccentric, yet talented, musician. While couched in acoustic folk textures, the music was extravagantly produced. Buckley boldly experimented with delicate ornamentations and flowery, blissful sounds. A young Van Dyke Parks helmed the keyboards while the legendary Jack Nitzsche arranged the strings. Buckley sang archly, often trilling his words for effect. There’s something mysteriously beautiful in the result. Of course, he’s precocious and precious, like his son Jeff Buckley would be, but in a dramatic way so that he became an essential character in his own songs. Rhino Handmade and Light in the Attic Records have jointly released a deluxe edition of Buckley’s debut release. The double-disc set contains one CD of original producer Bruce Botnick‘s (the Doors, Love) re-mastered versions of each of the dozen songs in both mono and stereo, and a 22-track CD that includes a dozen demos by Buckley with his band the Bohemians, and a slew of lo-fi home recordings of just him and his guitar. The package also includes rare photos and extensive liner notes about the recordings. Buckley certainly deserves the royal treatment accorded here. He’s been a major influence on a slew of artists – one, the Britpop band Starsailor, even took its name from one of his albums. While this album did not sell well when initially released, its reputation has deservedly grown over time. It was always a cult item, prized among the cool fetish objects of ‘60s psychedelica. This new edition only provides more aural evidence of its greatness. The inflections in Buckley’s voice in mono or stereo can cause shivers. On tunes such as “Song for Janie”, “Strange Street Affair Under Blue”, and “Valentine Melody”, Buckley used his voice to lure listeners into sonic puzzles that build and develop into emotional landscapes....full text |
| Uncut |
| As time has passed, Tim Buckley has come to resemble an emblem for the watershed 1960s: restless, exploratory, inspired, fearless. Ever mercurial, Buckley’s truly outré efforts would come later – this is a man who despised pop formula. But his stunning, oft-overlooked 1966 debut stands as a dreamy, precocious requiem for its times. Recorded in just two days by the 19-year-old songwriting visionary, Tim Buckley, like other early Elektra Records productions (especially, Love’s Forever Changes), is a kind of world unto itself. “Wings”, Buckley’s gorgeous, graceful debut single, is emblematic of the record’s magnetism; guided by baroque strings and Lee Underwood’s ringing guitar, it sounds like a compassionate inversion of Dylan’s “Like A Rolling Stone”. “But you will find your future is unknown,” Buckley swoons. “One day the questions rise/On wings of chance you fly.” Elektra knew Buckley was something special, matching him with their hippest production team – Paul Rothchild and Bruce Botnick. Van Dyke Parks, fresh from a summer working with Brian Wilson on Smile, was brought in on keyboards; Phil Spector protégé Jack Nitzsche, recent collaborator with The Rolling Stones, co-ordinated strings. But it’s Buckley’s otherworldly voice, a versatile, enveloping five-octave instrument capable of immense charisma and intense emotional stirrings – manoeuvering through complex mood shifts in the space of a breath – that make this such an auspicious, daring debut. Ostensibly a folk-rock album, oft-stereotyped as such, in truth Tim Buckley turns the fledgling genre inside out. Rather than merely commenting on the swirl of absurdities around him, à la Phil Ochs (though he did occasionally delve into that realm, as on follow-up record Goodbye And Hello’s devastating “No Man Can Find The War”), Buckley’s early songwriting is madly romantic, exploring a kaleidoscope of inner dialogues, with poetic flights of fancy exploring love, freedom, and, especially, what it means to be young....full text |
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