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Sefronia [VINYL]
 
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Sefronia [VINYL] [Import]

Tim Buckley | Format: Vinyl
3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Vinyl (30 Aug 2004)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Import
  • Label: Abraxas Records
  • ASIN: B0002LPMDW
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 822,318 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

After the lacklustre response to his groundbreaking early 1970s albums, Tim Buckley was forced back to the drawing board. His second attempt at a comeback was the over-egged Sefronia. Produced by pop producer, Denny Randell, this 11-track album did nothing to rescue his critical reputation. It's clear from the outset that Buckley was not really on peak form. Apparently suffering from a cold at the time, his much-loved voice wasn't at his best and this collection of ballads is made even more frustrating by the occasional flashes of inspiration. Overall, the tracks, which include an interesting choice of covers (Fred Neil's "Dolphins" and Tom Wait's "Martha"), are too submerged in Randell's slick production to really shine. Pedestrian, rather than otherworldly, it undoubtedly takes a while for the listener to feel at home here. However it's not easy: his distinctiveness was waning and the material doesn't really cut it. When his ramshackle muse does hang together, like on the evocative, "Quicksand" and the sweet "I Know I'd Recognise Your Face", we're almost in Happy/Sad territory but overall the songs (bar the covers) aren't worthy of the voice of that blood and blues-scarred past. --Reuben Dessay

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
The Honeyman Cometh 2 Mar 2008
Format:Audio CD
There will always be two schools of thought surrounding the recorded output of TB. Those who eschew out-of-hand all of his latter, sub-commercial trio of releases (i.e. Greetings From LA, Sefronia, and Look At The Fool) in favour of the more stoned escapades of Lorca, Starsailor, Blue Afternoon, etc. But there are those of us who love every aspect of the great minstrel, and why not? There will never be another like him. Personally, I think Sefronia is a great album, though flawed. Certainly, he nails Dolphins perfectly, rearranging Fred Neil's verses into what is arguably a more coherent song, and his version of Martha is better than any other I've heard, and that includes Tom Waits' own. As for the seemingly contentious I Know I'd Recognize Your Face - I love that song! It may not be classic, mouldbreaking Buckley, but what do you expect? Can't a man try something different every now and again? Nobody has mentioned that besides being about unpaid alimony, etc., the song is about a draft-dodger from the Vietnam conflict, and in that context sits well alongside others such as Nighthawkin', Make It Right, Peanut Man, Sally Go Round The Roses, Bring It On Up, Freeway Blues, and so on. The album was recorded during a period of social upheaval in the US (i.e. when the soldiers were being repatriated) and like Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, the latter period of TB reflects very much this change of national mood. Buckley had done introspection better than anyone, but you can't live in a bubble forever. Whichever way you see it, this was a new direction for Buckley. You also have to remember that, as great as we view albums like Lorca and Starsailor in hindsight, they buttered no parsnips as far as Tim was concerned ("Hey! your record's great! I wouldn't buy it though!" - you know?). Personally, I find Starsailor a very part-baked affair, and not a patch on HappySad or Blue Afternoon, which themselves were put together from bits of other material. But hey! It's all Tim Buckley, and really, what more could you ask for?
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Let it grow on you! 4 Jan 2004
Format:Audio CD
Perhaps I was a little harsh when I reviewed this album in November of 2003.

Although it will never be my favourite Buckley album (Happy Sad and Lorca are in a continuous battle for that position) I think I was a bit cruel by giving it only two stars, although I still can't listen to Martha or I Know I'd Recognise Your Face.

If it's true that he had a cold when recording the album then I wish I sounded that good at any time, ill or not! The production still detracts from the music a little but I have learned to ignore it and appreciate the brilliant songs hiding underneath. As a friend pointed out to me after I made a comment about producer Denny Rendell being shot, Buckley himself never kicked up a fuss about it being so bad, perhaps because of his dalliances with heroin at the time.

I do think it's worth hunting down The Dream Belongs To Me because it features demo recordings that Buckley made before the sessions for Sefronia. You can hear the songs in a much rawer state with much more of the Buckley spirit, his voice being used as the fantastic instrument that it was.

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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Audio CD
A bit of a suprise to any fans of the previous Greetings From LA album, Sefronia is a far more comprimised and, frankly, cheaper affair. Let down by some very average material and uninspired production, the second-to-last Tim Buckley studio album mixes a varied bag of originals with, for the first time, a handful of cover versions. Sefronia's strong points are definitely the title track - a glorious Buckley art song with evocative lyrics and amazing vocal phrasings built over an open but taut two part structure - and the beautiful Because of You, a fantastic Buckley love song which displays real soul and a wisdom in its lyrics sadly missing on much of the other original material. Of the covers, Fred Neil's Dolphins and Tom Waits' Martha come off well (if a little over produced) and Peanut Man is great fun. I Knew I'd Recognise Your Face, written by producer Denny Randell and dueted by his wife and Buckley, is a dreadful, cringe-worthy piece of music, and some of the rockier Buckley numbers are fairly empty, cod-funk fillers. Well worth the effort for the stronger tracks, Sefronia is a baffling work made all the more intriquing by its occasional forays into the sublime.
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