Review Summary: Despite not living up to Grace in sound, many of the songs suggest Buckley was about to explode. A must-have for any of his fans, and a tragic swansong for one of the greatest artists to grace the world with music.
The story behind this album is well known; Jeff Buckley, an extraordinarily talented musician and songwriter was coming off of an acclaimed debut album and several years of touring. He had been working on many songs in the studio and made some 'sketches' for other songs he wanted to develop for his sophomore album, and unexpectedly died in a freak accident. The songs he was working on and the songs he and the band had already done were collected, touched up, and released posthumously in 'Sketches For My Sweetheart the Drunk'. This was split into 2 discs, one with the full band and more studio polished songs, and the other with his 4-track demos and lo-fi songs.
One of my personal annoyances with 'Grace' was how slick it was. Great, crisp production and over-produced, lifeless garbage are separated by a pretty fine line, and Buckley's debut hovers on that line to a fault. 'Sketches' has none of that. Starting with the first disc, the studio tracks are not seemingly as well mixed as Buckley would have wanted in the final product. They're slightly dry and a little harsh and rough in spots, and this actually creates a completely different sound and atmosphere from anything on 'Grace'. The second disc is extremely rough, truly sketches that were recorded under circumstances that would make Elliott Smith blush: a 4-track, a cheap sounding microphone, a guitar/amp, and a once-in-a-generation talent utilizing them. Although heavily dependent on the tolerance of the listener, it's important to remember that Jeff never wanted anyone but presumably his music associates to hear these, and the grainy quality does nothing to dull the actual songs. It's even refreshing in a strange way, a complete change in atmosphere that some people (those rare people who enjoy terrible sound quality, they do actually exist) could even prefer to what the songs would be in a proper studio setting. Overall, the production didn't bother me and even served to give the album an edge, but it's certainly inferior to its predecessor.
Production is fine and dandy, but what about the quality of the songs themselves? This is far more important than the sound and nature of recording, as there are many a terrible song with top-notch sound and even more great songs that would cause audiophiles everywhere to mercilessly beat the engineers who produced them. As it is, I believe that Jeff Buckley's best original songs are on here. In a way, he is at his best (or at least most comfortable) when it's just him and a guitar, and Morning Theft and Opened Once are easily some of his best work lyrically as well as being hauntingly beautiful pieces of music. Similarly, You & I is just Buckley singing over an ambient, droning keyboard, and succeeds mightily. The sparsity serves to highlight the best things about Buckley's talents, and the change in pace from the band sound of 'Grace' is brilliant. However, the band songs are also outstanding, if less consistent. The Sky is a Landfill, Everybody Here Wants You, Nightmares by the Sea, and Vancouver are all at least as good as anything off of 'Grace' and show even more of his versatility as a musician. The word that keeps coming up is haunting; as good as 'Grace' was it was never truly haunting (with the exception of Hallelujah), and haunting melodies are everywhere on 'Sketches'.
The 4-track songs are a little bit odd. It seems like they were fairly fleshed out, and simply needed the band/studio treatment to be accessible songs, but they'll be forever stuck as gritty still shots of what-could-have-been. However, the songs themselves are up there with the aforementioned tracks as some of the best Buckley wrote. The 2 that really stand out are Demon John and I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted to Be), but it's no exaggeration to say that all of them are outstanding. Enjoyment of them may be hampered by a person's willingness (or lack thereof) to see through the mud, but the rewards are even greater than the first disc. In addition, there's a pair of remixes and covers. The remixes are a curiosity and ultimately not very significant, and the covers are very informal and less powerful than his Sin-e and 'Grace' covers but still have a dose of magic that makes them easy to listen to and enjoy.
As tragic as it may be, this album is essential listening, a goldmine of amazing music that is the last glimpse into the mind of a genius that people will ever get. It's not as classic or influential as 'Grace', but many songs are even better. One of the greatest enigmatic collections of songs in the history of popular music.
