"Although Tim Buckley's early career as a desolately beautiful acoustic singer-songwriter would be enough to guarantee his subsequent rock canonisation, his later phase is his most artistically ambitious. Buckley had been at the peak of his success in 1969, having just completed a visit to the UK and releasing his most successful recording, Happy Sad, on Elektra. Yet his next two releases, Blue Afternoon and Lorca, saw him caught in a downward spiral of melancholy and regret. 1970's Starsailor is simultaneously his bleakest and most rewarding work, a totally idiosyncratic album that sounds like nothing else that was happening at the time. The title track is a fantastic jazz hybrid, with saxophones crying over ritualistic hand percussion and heavy bass in a way that sounds most like Miles Davis's electric groups. Down By The Borderline takes it even further with Buckley grunting like an ecstatic James Brown over some uptight brass and strutting rhythms. However, it's Song To The Siren that's the real standout. Although endlessly covered, no-one can do justice to Buckley's angelically quivering voice, a little boy lost beset by hallucinatory, Blakean visions all illuminated by distant angelic voices and a lone tremulous guitar. Heartbreakingly beautiful."