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Sketches (For My Sweetheart, T
05/26/1998 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Chris Morris
As its title suggests, this is not a finished album, but a musical memorial to Jeff Buckley, who drowned accidentally in Memphis last year. Anyone expecting to find anything equal to the handsomely produced, brilliantly sung music on Grace is advised to take a raincheck: The two-CD Sketches is essentially a collection of demos, some cut in the studio by guitarist-turned-producer Tom Verlaine, and some recorded on a four-track machine in Memphis in the months before the singer's death. Buckley's vocals are extremely rough in some cases, but diehard fans will revel in his oft-angelic flights. Much of the material--some of it dense and rocking, some of it dreamy--is half-formed, but there's still some horrific fascination in hearing the intimations of mortality on songs like "Nightmares By The Sea." Posthumous homages like this one always present problems for the more casual listener; Buckley enthusiasts will discover low-key thrills among the odds and sods.
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