Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk is the only posthumous album of polished studio tracks and demos recorded by American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley. Buckley was dissatisfied by the material recorded during the first block session, produced by Television frontman Tom Verlaine in the summer of 1996 and early in 1997. He then continued working on demo recordings to refine his sound. The entire material of this compilation was supposed to be Buckley's second solo album, with the title as My Sweetheart, the Drunk, but was never finished, as the rest of the band were traveling to meet Buckley at the time of his death. The album was released posthumously on May 26, 1998. Despite its unfinished state, the album garnered many positive reviews. Musically, biographers and critics pointed that he "was reaching fruitfully in multiple directions".[4]
Biographers Dave Lory and Jim Irvin wrote that Buckley was inspired by the music of some of his favourite artists. "His Siouxsie and the Banshees influence is most obvious on songs like "Nightmares by the Sea" and "Witches Rave"".[11]Los Angeles Times cited as references "John Lennon’s early solo work" and "inner depth" of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Reviewer Steve Hochman compared the track "Everybody Here Wants You" to a "70s-ish soul experiment worthy of Marvin Gaye or Al Green" while "New Year's Prayer" was linked to Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir".[4]
"My Sweetheart the Drunk" was the working title that Buckley used while writing and recording the album. The title was intended by his mother and sole heir of his estate, Mary Guibert, to be rendered with parentheses, as Sketches for (My Sweetheart the Drunk). This was because Jeff's work was not finished, and therefore was just an outline, or "sketch", of what would have been released.
Track listing[]
All tracks composed by Jeff Buckley; except where indicated
International (non-US) editions of Disc 2 include the bonus track "Gunshot Glitter" (Jeff Buckley) as Track 7 for a total of 21 tracks. The Japanese edition of Disc 2 also includes the bonus track "Thousand Fold" (Jeff Buckley) as Track 11 for a total of 22 tracks.
^Dave Lory, Jim Irvin (2018). Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah to the Last Goodbye. Post Hill Press. ISBN978-1682615744. Jeff loved British music. [...] the wired consciousness of The Clash, the way Siouxsie and the Banshees went from gun-metal moodiness to skies of fireworks. He adored the Cocteau Twins, of course. He loved how the Smiths called to outsiders and nerds. His Siouxsie and the Banshees influence is most obvious on songs like "Nightmares by the Sea" and "Witches Rave" from the Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk album. He adored Siouxsie Sioux; her metallic tone and punky energy are somewhere in Jeff. Then there was Elizabeth Fraser, her "unique, impossible voice", as he described it.
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