Jeff Buckley Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk Lyrics

Culled both from studio sessions that his friends maintain he wasn't pleased with, and from four-track demo tapes never intended for public consumption, Sketches is an unfair representation of Jeff Buckley's musical world. At times quite touching ("Morning Theft, "Jewel Box"), the 2 CD set illustrates the stylistic struggle Buckley was confronting before he drowned last year at 30. His wiry voice was well- suited for gospel music, but his instincts were underdeveloped ("Satisfied Mind"). He couldn't rock without getting fancy, and the mellow material ("Everybody Here Wants You") touches on "lite" FM. The second disc features mostly home studio noodlings that might have been interesting on a box set looking over many years' output. As his last recordings, they point out a strong imagination that never had the time to grow into a unified vision. --Rob O'Connor