Jeff Buckley: Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk (3LP) [LEGACY]

Why you'll love it

This 3LP set comes pressed in the EU with a lyric sheet and three printed inner sleeves. It gathers the Tom Verlaine sessions for Buckley's planned second album and the four-track demos he made after them, a rare look at a great singer at work.

This edition

• 3LP set
• 140g vinyl
• Lyric sheet
• Printed inner sleeves
• Pressed in the EU
• Download card included

About the album

Most albums arrive finished. This one arrives with the sawdust still on it, and that's exactly its charm. After Grace, Jeff Buckley began work on a follow-up with the working title My Sweetheart the Drunk, recording in late 1996 and early 1997 with Television's Tom Verlaine producing. He then headed to Memphis with his band to start fresh, and died there in May 1997 before the new sessions were done. His mother, Mary Guibert, oversaw this collection, with the Verlaine recordings on one half and Buckley's own later demos on the other, left untouched.

Michael Tighe, Mick Grøndahl and Parker Kindred are the band, and they range wide. "Everybody Here Wants You" is a slow-burning soul ballad that critics compared to Marvin Gaye and Al Green, "The Sky Is a Landfill" and "Nightmares by the Sea" bring the guitars, and "New Year's Prayer" has a heavy, Eastern-tinged sway. The demo sides are looser and more intimate, with "Vancouver" and "Morning Theft" among the loveliest, plus a cover of Genesis's "Back in N.Y.C." and a gentle "Satisfied Mind" to close.

Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks said he was surprised Buckley sang the whole song, funny bits and all, and called it rather sweet. We'd add that very few singers have ever made a Genesis deep cut sound like a confession.

Also at Kops: more Jeff Buckley on vinyl · browse Singer-Songwriter

Tracklist

Listen

On Columbia / Legacy (cat# 19075835181), a reissue of the 1998 album.