Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk)

Jeff Buckley - Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk)

Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk)
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Category: Music CD
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Music CD Cover

Artist: Jeff Buckley
Brand: Sony
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1998-05-26
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Sky Is a Landfill
  2. Everybody Here Wants You
  3. Opened Once
  4. Nightmares by the Sea
  5. Yard of Blonde Girls
  6. Witches' Rave
  7. New Year's Prayer
  8. Morning Theft
  9. Vancouver
  10. You and I
Music CD 2
  1. Nightmares by the Sea
  2. New Year's Prayer
  3. Haven't You Heard
  4. I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted to Be)
  5. Murder Suicide Meteor Slave
  6. Back in N.Y.C.
  7. Demon John
  8. Your Flesh Is So Nice
  9. Jewel Box
  10. Satisfied Mind

Free Music Notes for Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk)

Free Music Review: My thoughts on "Sketches"
Hit: 5 Stars

Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk)I purchased the 2 disc edition of Sketches. The first disc: Sky is a Landfill,Everybody Here Wants You, Opened Once, Nightmare by the Sea, New Year's Prayer, You & I, is easy and makes for very enjoyable listening. These recordings were done with Tom Verlaine as producer. Listening to the first disc, naturally causes one to speculate on which direction Jeff was musically growing in his astonishing professional development. Most of the songs strike me as less musical, not as instrumentally active, as those in Grace. Some have noted that his vocals are less elastic than in his previous album. However, one must always remember that what is found in Sketches are unfinished, rejected products. Jeff was dissatisfied with the Verlaine recordings, and did not want these songs released. He decided to start over with Andy Wallace as producer, but alas, that was not to be. Because Jeff rejected these songs, no judgement can legitimately be drawn, based on what one hears, as to whether Jeff was musically moving to a more "metallic", less vocal genre or not. We will never know just what Jeff disliked about the Verlaine recordings and what he eventually would have created in their place.

The lyrics of Buckley's music have always impressed me as at first difficult to understand, and therefore, slow to evoke emotion. However, with repeated listening, they become easier to decipher and take hold in one's heart and soul. So it is with these lyrics.

The second disc featuring, Haven't You Heard, I know We Could be so Happy, Murder Suicide Meteor, etc., is very difficult to listen to, and should not have been published. The recordings are nothing more than raw, very raw, demos. For percussion effects, for example, Jeff would tap on the microphone. There is no backup instrumentation. Jeff would simply, and justifiably, have been mortified to have these rudimentary works released to the public.

I have rated "Sketches" very highly, based on the first disc. Though, as I have indicated, I am ambivalent despite the more developed, polished state of this disc. It is natural for any listener, any fan of Jeff's, to inevitably draw inferences based on what one hears in Sketches, about what would have been, could have been, in Buckley's future, had he lived. Yet, hopefully the listener will remember that these songs, being rejected versions, do not really represent Jeff Buckley music. Moreover, Jeff was a perfectionist, and would have been opposed to any release of unfinished works. As for the second disc, I recommend that it be ignored: it is nothing less than an insult to Jeff Buckley's memory. In my humble opinion, his mother, the executor of Jeff Buckley's estate, has acted quite unwisely, and has done her son, my favorite musician, a great disservice in allowing release of this disc.

Despite my stated reservations, however, I recommend the first disc. Jeff was a singular artist of enormous potential. The likes of him come all too infrequently. Therefore, enjoy whatever scraps he has left behind. As musician and Jeff Buckley fan, Duncan Sheik, has quipped, even his failures (in Jeff's own eyes), are my favorite songs.

Love you, Jeff.

Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk) Poster

Perhaps the most talented "son act" in pop music, Jeff Buckley combined the often harrowing eclecticism of estranged papa Tim Buckley with the rock acrobatics of Robert Plant. This posthumously released collection of four-track demos and sessions helmed by Tom Verlaine indicates that Buckley's astonishing full-length debut, Grace, was no fluke. The young singer-songwriter puts his falsetto to good use on an extraordinary collection of original material, from the soulful "Everybody Here Wants You" to the psychedelic "Murder Suicide Meteor Slave." And while his bluesy take on Porter Wagoner's "Satisfied Mind" may not be as revelatory as his earlier version of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," this album offers ample proof that Buckley was among his generation's most gifted voices. --Bill Forman

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