Sketches(for My Sweetheart the Drunk)

Almost exactly one year after his death comes the eagerly awaited release of Jeff Buckley's "Sketches...", a double CD featuring the songs he had been working on for the follow-up album to the majestic "Grace". This release, supervised by Buckley's mother, has been the subject of a lot of controversy among Buckley fans, many of whom are boycotting the purchase on the grounds that it's a cash-in by Sony, and are instead offering bootleg copies on the net in a bid to lower sales. As I've already mentioned, this is not an album of finished works. The first CD contains tracks that Jeff recorded with Tom Verlaine(Television), but he apparently decided that these weren't up to scratch and effectively scrapped plans to release them. The second CD for the most part contains 4-track demos recorded by Jeff which were to be potentially the new album tracks. As you'd expect, the sound on these demos is far from perfect, and Buckley's mother insisted that no overdubs be made on these tracks as they could be misinterpretations.

I'm a big Buckley fan so my opinion could be a little biased, but I believe this album contains some of the most sublime music ever written. All the reviews I've read on this album rant on in similar fashion(Eamonn Carr for example wrote that someday Jeff Buckley will be mentioned in the same breath as Jim Morrison and Robert Johnson, and he's not a two-bit writer like me). Buckley as always sings with such passion that you feel he is draining his very soul, while the instruments stay respectfully in the background, as if in the knowledge that they simply cannot communicate with the listener on a similar plain to his voice. There's no point in discussing individual tracks with an album like this because they all have their own niche, their own highlights. The Verlaine-produced CD is polished enough and quite accessible, so that will be the one any listener will warm to first. However, if you take the time to listen to the demo tracks on the second CD with an open ear, you'll soon find yourself painting sonic pictures of how these tracks would eventually have turned out, and when you think to yourself that you'll never be able to imagine his vision for these songs you will ultimately realise why Jeff Buckley's death is one of music's greatest losses.

By: Neil Scott