by Richie Unterberger

After his beginnings as a gentle, melodic baroque-folk-rocker, Buckley gradually evolved into a downright experimental singer-songwriter who explored both jazz and avant-garde territory.

Starsailor is the culmination of his experimentation, and alienated far more listeners than it exhilarated upon its release in 1970. Buckley had already begun to delve into jazz fusion on late-'60s records like Happy Sad, and explored some fairly "out" acrobatic, quasi-operatic vocals on his final Elektra LP, Lorca.

With former Mother of Invention Bunk Gardner augmenting Buckley's group on sax and alto flute, Tim applies vocal gymnastics to a set of material that's as avant-garde in its songwriting as its execution.

At his most anguished (which is often on this album), he sounds as if his liver is being torn out -- slowly. Almost as if to prove he can still deliver a mellow buzz, he throws in a couple of pleasant jazz-pop cuts, including the odd, jaunty French tune Moulin Rouge.

Surrealistic lyrics, heavy on landscape imagery like rivers, skies, suns, and jungle fires, top off a record that isn't for everybody, or even for every Buckley fan, but endures as one of the most uncompromising statements ever made by a singer-songwriter.

© 1995 Unterberger/The All-Music Guide to Rock - Backbeat Books