Goodbye And Hello
by Tim Buckley

From Mercury TOP 100 COMMENTER 10/19/2017 20:33 | #199806 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

I had a busy day of listening today. I had a half dozen albums to relisten to. This one included. And to be honest I just wasn't overwhelmingly excited about listening to Tim Buckley. He had never yet clicked with me. Meaning he had never really connected with me or illuminated for me some sort of realization of the greatness of his music or the coolness or the style or virtuosity, etc. It just had never straightened into a clear concept in my mind which I liked. I had listened to this album and a few of his later (stranger and more experimental) albums.

But I just made myself push play to at least recollect what i thought of this album. And the coolest thing happened. I finally "Got It". I mean I finally heard the sheer creative audacity of what Buckley had done with this album. I found myself overcome by the emotions he was expressing, I heard and understood what he was doing with his somewhat over the top musical waves. The palate with which he paints this album is immense. There are strange effects on many things, and guitars, and keyboards and symphonies and big crescendos and there is, of course, his vocals. His vocals were what finally worked for me. They just are all over the place and all in service of the songs. His voice has always been mentioned as a game changer in many ways, but I never liked them much. But here they really work, he sounds like he is almost bursting with an unimaginable amount of emotion and fire and sadness. And as he sings he is releasing these sounds and these feelings and its oft-times glorious.

And yes later albums are definitely pushed way way up my "To Listen" list. I believe its generally understood that he got more and more out there and experimental as he went along in his short life. And I do recall "Lorca" and "Starsailor" being quite strange and beautiful. I am very very excited to listen to them for later songwriter lists (1969-1971 will probably HAVE to be top 15s at this rate cuz man there is a lot of great stuff coming up to listen to for those years). Its amazing to think he became somehow MORE innovative. Cuz listening to this today just blew my mind in how incredibly unique and forward-thinking the whole sound and flow of the album was. I mean you can hear traces of it in Fred Neil, but this is just next level wild and ahead of its time. Its a goodie.

Grade: 9.2/10 (Edited)

An impressive early album for a young artist who took some risks and I think they do pay off in the most part on this record. To start with I am a huge fan of the lyricism on Tim Buckley's work and this is no exception. There is loads to explore and for such a young writer he is very mature and intelligent with his word selection. His vocal delivers these words to a varied degree of effectiveness with certain songs packing more of a punch in terms of his voice. I do understand the criticism that his voice is a bit plain and so I can see why many people might not like it but I think it is actually quite strong. It dominates songs like Pleasant Street, Once I Was and Phantasmagoria In Two making them feel so powerful and making me want to revisit those songs time and time again. The instrumentation is very diverse as well on this record and used very effectively. The songs aren't to overcrowded and the less vital instruments are only called upon in places where they fit perfectly and aren't overused. The performances on the instrumentation are amazing as well. Overall, a great album that seems like it was created by an experienced and mature performer who has been doing this for a very time when in reality it was only his second album which always amazes me due to how brilliant this is. (Edited)

From bigeyedfish 07/23/2014 15:41 | #117561 | TOP COMMENT Vote up your preferred comments and the comments with the most votes will be flagged.

Very much '67 and yet quite unique. Cool songwriting not quite in line with what others were doing, punctuated by a monstrously strong voice. I admit it's imperfect and not for everyone, but if it connects with you as it did me you could find a new favorite. (Edited)

People talk a lot about Phychedelic music, but they seem to confuse garage rock with psychedelia. Try this music. Tim Buckley at his most melodic, and restrained. Tim sometimes went for vocal pyrotechnics. This time he stuck to the music. It is trippy. (Edited)

'Goodbye and hello' stands out from a year which was full of original, creative masterpieces. The album has unusual, experimental songwriting yet the songs still remain melodic and catchy. Tim Buckley's amazing voice adds an even more plus to the whole.
This is the type of music I listen to when I want to forget time and space for while. (Edited)