Rhino Handmade

Although his true experimentalism was still to come, Tim Buckley, on his self-titled 1966 debut, arrived fully formed, already sounding unlike anyone else on the overpopulated singer/songwriter scene. His songs, described in the original liner notes as “exquisitely controlled, quiet, complex mosaics” that “hold the magic of Japanese water colors,” were adventurous and his voice crystalline and beatific. Co-produced by Elektra Records mainstays Paul Rothchild and Jac Holzman, with string arrangements by Jack Nitzsche and an ace studio team including Van Dyke Parks, Buckley’s maiden effort is a jewel, if less heralded than some of the ambitious epics that would succeed it. By expanding Tim Buckley to two overstuffed discs, Rhino Handmade’s deluxe treatment demands that this tentative introduction be reconsidered. Disc one offers the original album in both stereo and mono mixes, but as is often the case on packages such as this, things get really interesting on the second disc. Calling it, simply, “Previously Unreleased,” the label has first gathered a dozen demos recorded by Buckley in 1965 as a member of The Bohemians, whose drummer Larry Beckett co-wrote several of the tunes that would appear on Buckley’s album the following year. Rawer and more garage-y than the music Elektra would eventually release, typical of the era’s folk-rock, it gives a retrospective hint of Buckley’s innate gift, as do the nine acoustic demos, featuring only Buckley and Beckett, that fill out the disc. Not for completists only, this one is a must-have for any Tim Buckley fan.