Blue Afternoon (studio album) by Tim Buckley

From Jboy56 04/12/2022 15:54

Very original despite many jazz influences. Not easily understood or approached. Very original and interesting.
Best track Blue Melody. Essential listening, then and now.

From JulianR 11/16/2017 04:52

wow what an experience. It starts off amazingly, maybe drops off a little in the middle, but comes back strong and more experimental at the end

From Mercury 10/19/2017 20:24

kay, and here it is. This album... My goodness.

It is indeed amazing. Its got similar jazz folk DNA as Happy Sad, but its more palatable and more grounded and more attainable. The vocals here are the best of all the Buckley albums I've heard and thus are some of the best of all time. The poetry is so sweet and romantic. This album is in my ears now and all the colness and hate ful dregs are being cleaned away.

The guitars are just off doing there own thing, the bass is bouncing along, Tim is singing his heart - formless and free and pure - , the drums are skipping about and lightly keeping the songs afloat, and that's all on track one! The magic just keeps coming. This album just gets you in the mood for love, and for wonder and wonder and it just takes you along.

"Chase The Blues Away" is as good and soulful a folk jazz blues song as has existed, its so sad, and its ethereal and somehow earthy and cosmic all at once. I have similar feelings for "I Must Have Been Blind", "The River", "Blue Melody" and several other songs.

Okay, and about Astral Weeks. I don't mean to say these 69 Buckley albums are exactly like Astral Weeks. Cuz nothing is. But there is a feeling here of some spiritualism or some non-earthbound something going on. The instruments are doing their own things and contributing to the free-est and most airy, vibrant, unpredictable brand of folk or soul I've ever heard outside of Astral Weeks. I'm just saying although I wouldn't put these albums on the same level as Astral Weeks, these are the closest I have heard to albums attaining that similar astral power.

Okay, and there ya go. I have to say that I don't like the final song here "The Train". I think the wheels kinda come off at the end, and I don't really like it. But outside of that track this Blue Afternoon album really is a masterpiece and may be my new fave Buckley album.

Gosh darn am I excited to listen to "Lorca" and "Starsailor" for the 1970 albums list! Now that I have a love for several of his earlier albums, I am sure those records will finally make some sense to me.

Rating: 9.1/10

From Repo 06/23/2017 17:43

TO LOVE AND LET IT GO

Here I am believin' words again
Here I am tryin' to find your love again
Here I am down on my knees again
Prayin' for a love
That we used to know

Both of us know
How hard it is to love
And let it go
Both of us know
How hard it is to go on living that way - I Must Have Been Blind

Then just like the river
I can change my ways - The River


To love and let it go. All of us have to go through this. It is part of being human. And it is one of the hardest things to do. And it is the central theme of this incredible album. Loving & letting go. And how we can blind ourselves. Deceive ourselves for a long, long time of the necessity to move on. But just like the river that provides the setting for so many of these beautiful, mournful songs - we can change our ways. We can move on. It can be so hard to believe that someone we feel so strongly about does not feel the same way. Does not reciprocate that love that we feel so deeply in our bones. We go into denial. And get stuck. Stagnate. And that’s disastrous for our soul. For our spirit. Luckily, Tim made this album for us during these these difficult times. Its an album that proves that we are not alone in this plight. That everyone loses love. That the feeling of love lost is universal. And we can go to that river that runs through all of us. Dance by the river's edge. And move on. Because just like the river, we can change our ways.

Grade: A+. I don’t know what this is. Is it Jazz? Folk? Who cares! Albums that bend and blur the genre lines are so often the best and this of course is no exception. Tim shows yet again that he was (by far!) the best vocalist of the folk rock kingdom for that era or really any era. His vocal prowess has really been unmatched. ( And if it has, school me! Please.) It was a singular instrument - sensuous yet longing. Full of vitality yet also vulnerable. Especially on Blue Afternoon - which even though he’s venturing even further into jazz terrain, it’s actually his most accessible and mellow album. Accessible is sometimes used as a four letter word. But, it really shouldn’t be. It just means it’s a natural fit. Like love should be! So sure Buckley has more challenging albums, more avant-garde albums such as BEA/Scaruffi faves like Lorca and Starsailor, but this is by far my favorite. It’s the perfect album to snuggle up with on this rainy, overcast morning with a cup of Numi's Aged Earl Gray. (I’m off coffee. Aargh!… Doctor’s orders, I’m afraid. Thanks for the tea recs, Paul & Jimmy!). And it meanders like a river all the way up to number six.