Search - Jeff Buckley :: Sketches (For My Sweetheart the Drunk)

A Two Disc Masterpiece : It just might be better than "Grace

Cabir Davis | 10/17/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I cannot believe the negative and unfortunate reviews here for this album. Do so many people really feel cheated by this CD, calling it a bunch of rough demos? That is just insane!



Heres the thing - this is a very superior collection of songs that in no way can be called demos. Just because they aren't of the highly polished variety such as the ones on 'Grace' in no way makes these recordings inferior.



Take for instance the second track - 'Everybody here wants you' - is there a single more touching torch song in the entire Jeff Buckley catalog? I don't think so. What a song. What a melody. What a voice! That song alone is the worth the $15 asking price for this CD.



Needless to say, I am a huge Jeff Buckley fan, and consider 'Grace' to be the greatest male album ever recorded. However, repeated listening to this double disc might make you wonder if THIS isn't Jeff's best. It is much more musically versatile when compared to 'Grace', and its also very diverse in his vocal stylings. Theres rock (very Led Zep), alternative (very cold play), soul (very Maxwell), love-pop (very Barbra Streisand), and blues (very Nina Simone). Tell me of another album that does all these genres this well.



People, this is a masterpiece and a necessary addition to your collection. Get it today. Don't let this one slip you by.



Five Stars - A timeless classic."

Half polished, half sketches...

Emily Threlkeld | Houston, TX | 07/31/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk is so good, and, at the same time, so hard to listen to. Jeff Buckley had planned to go into the studio to record his sophomore album, My Sweetheart the Drunk, in June of 1997. He died in May. This album, a two-CD compilation of three studio sessions and a fourth unofficial recording session, was released posthumously.



The first disc, a mix of the studio sessions sounds like a real album. The second disc has a few polished songs, but is mostly a sampling of Buckley's rough four-track recordings. He sounds like he was playing with where to go next, and it's a tragedy that the album will never be fully realized. (That sense of unfinished business gives the CD its amended title.)



As the audiophile who introduced me to Buckley said, "It's no Grace." Well, no, it isn't. You shouldn't expect it to be, either. Not everyone is as fortunate as, say, Warren Zevon, who, after being diagnosed with lung cancer in 2002, made an album before he died, knowing it would be his last.



Buckley wasn't finished. I suppose you could make the argument that no artist ever is. But, listening to this album, you can't help but wonder what might have been.



As his mother says in the liner notes, "If Jeff had lived and chosen to erase these sketches, it would have been a relative minor loss. He could have written hundreds of songs and made dozens of albums in their place. Unfortunately, God had something else in mind for my son, and for me.""