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Mystery White Boy
06/30/2000 4:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Rob O'Connor
You ever notice how dead people make more albums than their living counterparts? While alive, Jeff Buckley recorded one album, Grace, and a raw early EP (Live At Sine). Once drowned, a two-CD collection of works in progress were issued (Sketches) and now this live album. If Jeff continues to follow in his fatherÆs footsteps (thatÆs TIM Buckley) there will be plenty more where this came from. Recorded live through 1995-96 in a variety of situations, the album points up much of what we already knew about Buckley: he was a raw, overambitious songwriter with too much vocal range for his own good, who sounded like his father filtered through a life spent listening to the artier moments of Led Zeppelin. Which isnÆt to say it doesnÆt have its moments. The leadoff cut, "Dream Brother" (as opposed to dadÆs "Dream Letter"--the parallels are all there no matter how much he maintained they werenÆt) is an eight-and-a-half-minute epic. The previously unreleased "What Will You Say" is worth hearing (sounds like his dad-meets-Lenny Kravitz's lyric sheet). Whether he would have transcended and successfully synthesized his influences is something we WILL never know, no matter how many tapes come to the surface.
SOUNDS LIKE: Tim Buckley, Led Zeppelin, Chris Cornell
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