Blue Afternoon – TIM BUCKLEY***

Happy Time/Chase The Blues Away/I Must Have Been Blind/The River/So Lonely/Café/Blue Melody/The Train

Blue Afternoon, the fourth album from folk singer songwriter Tim Buckley, consolidated the style of his previous releases. His next albums would be more avant-garde jazz in style. (US:192)

“The whole album is led by Buckley's incredible performances in which his voice becomes an instrument, at one with his own twelve-string guitar accompaniment. The use of exclusively real instruments, subtly amplified to create a spacey feel, adds to the overall mood of languorous melancholy that pervades the record.”

“The album is similar in style to Happy Sad but the tracks are, for the most part more tightly structured, more focused and the instrumentation is less sparse. This album was more of a consolidation of the Happy Sad sound rather than a giant conceptual leap forward, with many of the songs having been written prior to 1969.”

“Blue Afternoon was out and out melodic. Buckley uses slow brewed songs to experiment with melodic chord changes. This album is about hues and textures. Long stretches of gorgeous pastoralism that take on the grandeur of classical music. This is a piece to the Buckley puzzle, and he never made a more beautiful one.”

“Blue Afternoon returns Buckley to a more song based format rather than an album experience. I think this makes for a more monotonous listen as the songs end too quickly and bring me back to reality more than I'd like, and there's not enough variety in the moods to keep me looking forward to the next song.”

“Buckley's deeply sombre, yet rich, operatic vocals really steal the show, but these songs are just marvellous compositions beautifully arranged, with soft percussion, subdued electric guitar, and lovely vibraphone all contributing to the mellow mood.”

“Perhaps a bit too melancholy. I don't think Tim fully fulfilled his potential here, and the album does get a bit tedious unfortunately. That said it wasn't a weak album, just an underwhelming one.”

“Acoustic folk ballads fuelled by Buckley’s multi octave vocal, twelve string guitar and extended into jazzier waters via the pull of electric guitar, upright bass and vibes.”