Starsailor by Tim Buckley

Starsailor, Tim Buckley's sixth album, came out on Herb Cohen's Straight label in November 1970, and it's the record where the one-time folk-rocker dives headfirst off the deep end. Buckley produced it himself and went all in on the avant-garde and jazz-rock, bending his voice into wails, swoops and yelps that treat singing like a free-jazz horn solo. Former Mother of Invention Bunk Gardner joined the backing band for the sessions, and lyricist Larry Beckett was back in the fold after sitting out three albums.

Plenty of his fans ran for the exits, but the record has since become a cult classic. Tucked in among the wildness is "Song to the Siren", written long before the rest, a ghostly, becalmed ballad that became his best-known song. Even opera star Leontyne Price, catching a New York show on the tour, told him she wished someone wrote music like that for opera singers.

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