What the record is and where it came from
A 1972 funk album by Tim Buckley. One of three he recorded after disbanding his Starsailor ensemble in 1970 and assembling a new funk band.
How it sounds, and how it was made
It sounds like a tight, dry funk band playing in a small studio. The bass is prominent and syncopated. Guitars are clipped and rhythmic. Drums are tight and unswung. There is no reverb on the vocals. No horns, no strings, no keyboards are mentioned in the material.
What lands
The groove lands. The basslines land. The title track’s irony lands—‘Greetings From L.A.’ is not a postcard but a low-lit, sweat-stained dispatch.
What does not
It does not sound like Starsailor. It does not use orchestration. It does not feature extended improvisation. It does not have radio-friendly edits or mainstream soul polish.
The ideas inside it
Sexually frank lyrics. A rejection of hippie idealism. A bid for commercial relevance through funk idioms. Alienation as both consequence and subject.
Who should hear it, and who should not
Funk crate-diggers. Students of 1970s genre pivots. Listeners who care how a band occupies a room, not how a legend is framed.
Is it worth your time
Yes—if you want to hear Buckley’s deliberate pivot from avant-garde to funk, stripped of myth and context. No—if you expect lush arrangements, lyrical ambiguity, or vocal acrobatics.
