Sketches For My Sweetheart the Drunk

Description

Review Jeff Buckley s death was so rife with rock-star symbolism--he drowned after playfully jumping into a Memphis marina only to get swept away by a Mississippi undertow--that it s easy to forget that he never quite became one. The two-disc Sketches collects Buckley s work-in-progress--selections from the awkward Verlaine sessions plus the aforementioned demos--into a typically mercenary and reputation-tarnishing memorial. Tempering his bluster into sultrty quiet storm probably seemed like a smart move for this sad-eyed sex symbols. But "Everybody Here Wants You" is strictly sub-Spandau Ballet balladry. Sketches is more unneeded proof that, in rock & roll, dead men ultimately tell whatever tales they ve committed to tape, no matter how inconsequential or unfinished. -- SpinThough the posthumous Sketches contains only rough drafts of tunes intended (and a few deemed inadequate) for the singer's follow-up to the outstanding 1994 debut Grace, its musical shimmer and emotional resonance compensate for missteps and a lack of polish.... From the salacious rock of Your Flesh Is So Nice to a forlorn cover of Porter Wagoner's country ballad Satisfied Mind," Buckley demonstrates a stylistic range and vocal honesty that few '90s singer/songwriters share. -- USA Today[A] terrifying blend of the sparklingly wide-eyed and the sighingly world-weary.... Transplant his acrobatic musical suppleness into the human physique and Buckley would have been Olympian. -- NME [A] testament to Buckley's role as a lifelong student of rock history.... [An] incomplete, yet affecting, farewell. -- Entertainment Weekly[I]t's the clarity and punch of these [Tom] Verlaine versions [of Buckley's songs] that help bring out the promise of Buckley's rock-punctuated folk style.... -- The Los Angeles Times[The late Jeff] Buckley had a trove of material prepared for his next album.... Powerful, impassioned and haunting, [these songs] are a sadly fitting legacy--sketches of what might have been. -- People