Review Summary: "...Just hear this and then I'll go/You gave me more to live for/More than you'll ever know."
19 years since Jeff Buckley was tragically taken from us. 18 years since
Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk gave us a fragmented, beautiful reminder of an album that would never be finished. 22 years since
Grace showed the world how searingly emotional rock can become in the hands of a master. 50 years since one of the most talented musicians we would ever see was born.
Frankly, there's a point where you look at posthumous releases for a legendary artist and say "f*cking enough already." The estates of Michael Jackson and Jimi Hendrix passed that point such an interminably long time ago I can barely remember a time I wasn't unreasonably frustrated by them; thankfully, Buckley's b-sides have yet to reach that expiration date. I was still excited by the announcement of
You and I. Under other circumstances, the percentage of covers to originals would be disappointing, but Buckley had a unique talent of making his cover songs sound entirely like originals. In truth, the covers here vary in quality even within similar genres – Buckley's "The Boy With the Thorn In His Side" is fairly tame, while his seven-minute "I Know It's Over" is almost
Grace-worthy.
The original song, "Dream of You and I", is the biggest asset of the record. Buckley claims to have based it on "some music heard in a dream", which accentuates the ethereal quality of the recording. It's hardly even a sketch of a song, just a largely instrumental jam punctuated by a haunting refrain and the surreal dream told by Buckley. It's no "Everybody Here Wants You" or "All Flowers in Time", but it does strengthen his reputation as one of the lucky few artists who seemed to be incapable of doing wrong. Whether or not that reputation will stand under countless re-issues and ""new"" releases of touched up b-sides only time will tell.
