Tim Buckley - Once I Was: BBC Sessions (1999)

The latest "discovery" of undiscovered music by one of the most unique and oblique artists of the rock era, Once I Was includes remastered versions of five previously available songs from some 1968 John Peel sessions and two others (including Fred Neil's "Dolphins") from a May 1974 live performance. Drawing on material from various points in his tragically short career, including cuts from 1967's Goodbye and Hello ("Once I Was" and "Hallucinations") and 1969's Happy Sad ("Sing a Song for You"), Tim Buckley weaves his exploratory folk music and stunning vocal range through jazzy interludes and blues-influenced jams. Buckley fans will be mesmerized by the album's culmination, "I Don't Need It to Rain," uncovered in a box of reel-to-reel recordings in Buckley's home. More than a song, it's an eerie 12-minute listening experience, broken up only by the applause at the end. --Scott Holter