Happy 25th Anniversary to Jeff Buckley’s Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk, posthumously released May 26, 1998.
Since the start of the modern music industry, the posthumous release of an album is historically fraught with drama. With it comes the responsibility of thoughtfully maintaining the artist’s legacy, making choices on their behalf and serving their audience with something to satisfy the void left by their passing.
So, when Jeff Buckley died in an accidental drowning in Memphis on May 29, 1997, young and unprepared to leave his work behind, his family and record company were tasked with bringing his unreleased material to the public. Though contentious, the end result is Buckley’s second studio album Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk, released in 1998, nearly one year to the day after his untimely death, a monument to an artist finding his voice.
Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk demonstrates Buckley's willingness to push boundaries and experiment with different musical styles. The album is a blend of rock, folk, jazz, and avant-garde elements, showcasing Buckley's versatility as a musician. It displays his ability to fuse multiple genres into a cohesive sound, despite the format of Sketches being more tumultuous on the whole, than the individual tracks.
But the chaos of the two sides, one a scrapped attempt at an album, produced by Television’s Tom Verlaine, the other a smattering of EPs and assorted unreleased recordings compliments of Buckley’s mother, feels like an important historical footnote 25 years later. It’s a snapshot of a mercurial artist, one with such diverse influences, it’s impossible to assume the outcome he would have desired.
Buckley had felt success with his debut album Grace (1994), but more so amongst critics and musicians, not the Billboard Top 40 crowd. So with increased pressure from his label, Buckley attempted to trade in Grace’s tender-hearted rock for something more experimental and aggressive with Sketches. However, after months of toiling alongside Verlaine and workshopping in front of unassuming crowds throughout Memphis, Buckley had decided to go in a different direction to realize his vision for the second album. But in that time, Buckley passed suddenly, leaving behind a completed, yet unapproved EP, as well as a backlog of material from earlier days. Combined, we are left with Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk.
Listen to the Album:
Buckley's haunting vocals, coupled with poignant lyrics and intricate melodies, evoke an emotional response only compounded by the tragic nature of the recording. The songs on Sketches capture a wide range of emotions, from introspective and melancholic to passionate and intense. “Everybody Here Wants You” is the most popular track from the album, a down-tempo, R&B-tinged track that perfectly displays Buckley’s gorgeous vocal range. It’s a sexy song, in line with Buckley’s heartthrob image, which he allegedly bristled at. One can imagine it may not have made the final cut, had he been in charge.
Tracks like “The Sky Is A Landfill” and “Yard Of Blonde Girls” are grunge-tinged, with an electric guitar mixed much louder than his Grace days. “Nightmares By The Sea” is almost like an early Radiohead track, while his cover of the Genesis song “Back In New York” is a playful attempt at prog rock. One of the four-track demos from the second side of the album, “Your Flesh Is So Nice” sounds like Buckley playing PJ Harvey, with screeching vocals and sensual imagery. Overall, to say the album is all over the place would be an understatement.
His influence on today’s popular music, enigmatic recording methods and tragic death, all create a compelling mythos around Buckley’s life. These particulars also helped to elevate Sketches to a cult status—not as well-known as Grace, but an essential part to understanding Buckley as a musician. And while raw vulnerability in his songwriting and emotion-packed vocals that were introduced to his debut are still there, Buckley is taking more risks, putting his encyclopedic knowledge of music to good use.
Sketches of My Sweetheart the Drunk is an album that sounds as complicated as the artist behind it. And while we will never know exactly how Buckley meant for this music to be heard, it serves as a testament to his immense talent and, 25 years later, continues to captivate audiences with his powerful songs.
Listen: