poll for Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk by Jeff Buckley

I don't know which surprises me more: only two votes for "Murder Suicide Meteor Slave" (for me, the blueprint for what would've been his crowning achievement -- and it would have been recorded/produced the same way), or none at all for "Back in NYC."

This thread has made me revisit Sketches for the first time in yeeeeears. I hadn't listened to any Jeff in years, really, and a recent encounter with Last Goodbye in a shop was most disappointing. I found it overwrought, overproduced. Much of Grace is like that. You can't fault his ambition, but he gets a bit carried away with the power of his voice and studio filigree. It's clearly a debut album, but one that's inevitably been pushed up into the pantheon as it's all we have. But really, Sketches is the one for the pantheon. It's cleaner, leaner, weirder. Far superior to Grace. I'd forgotten how good Morning Prayer is, Vancouver too. Really love the slightly gothy stuff like Nightmares By The Sea and Witches Rave - not best song on the record, but deserving of a vote surely? The songwriting is way more advanced. But perhaps the biggest difference is that he's learned to control his voice much more - Liz Fraser's influence?

Anyway, I voted Everybody Here Wants You but having explored the album further I'd like to have gone for New Year's Prayer, Vancouver or Witches Rave p'rhaps...

"Grace" always seemed like a "Introducing..." type album.

On the one hand, he could have made a vast amount of 'different category' albums, based on that one showcase.

Then again, there was a fair amount of time between that album and his death (while fussing over making album 2).

Another one of those guys that liked to prevaricate and act like there was all the time in the world...

Not having heard Genesis as 17 year old I didn't have a clue what to make of his Back In NYC. It's fuckin' great though. That huge clunking bass and the spidery guitar parts. Aw yeah.

(clarification) 13 years later, I think it's fucking great.

pretend I voted for "Murder Suicide Meteor Slave"

"witches rave" is so hot

Weirdly I just got the urge to listen to this yesterday. I ended up listening to it two days in a row. Morning Theft is the one that really grabbed me this time round, especially the way he sings "I miss my beautiful friend".

Yard of Blonde Girls and Witches Rave and Sky is a Landfill and so many good songs

“Yard of Blonde Girls” is an awesome song. I guess he didn’t write it, but one verse is about him(?)

“Gunshot Glitter” isn’t on this poll, but that one’s kind of amazing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQiom9uRKog

It’s like the best Strokes song that the Strokes never made, or could make, or something…

I wonder why he wasn’t happy with these recordings… like what sound did he have in his head that he was trying to achieve. Some artists work very hard trying to make an album that approaches this quality!

yeah it's hard to know. the finished tracks on this certainly sound very acceptably finished.

iirc from books I've read, he just felt the downward pressure from Columbia and doubted himself greatly, he wanted to work with Tom Verlaine producing and the experience yielded four of the tracks but I don't think that went very well overall.