Starsailor (via Discogs)
Starsailor is an album that caught me completely by surprise. I’d never heard it previously and expected to listen to quasi-folkie crooning. Not a bit of it. This reminded me more of Captain Beefheart for most of its 36-minute running time.
it would be wrong to say I enjoyed it per se on initial listening. The first time through I was wondering what on earth was coming next as Buckley’s voice swooped and howled. Not so much avant garde as fractured and deconstructed, this is a serious artistic statement, the bass and muted horns recalling free jazz while flirting with melodicism when it suits them. The exception is Song to the Siren.
The second time through, I was taken further by surprise by getting more into it. I don’t own it; if I did I probably wouldn’t listen to it regularly, but then I don’t listen to the magnificent Trout Mask Replica regularly either. I’ve said before that one of the joys of this project has been finding the unexpected, and this slab of soul-baring is definitely that. One to come back to later.
I listened on Spotify, and there is an official playlist on YouTube. I daresay most of my readers won’t like it, but one or two of you might at least appreciate it 🙂
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