Jeff Buckley was a wonderful and talented Rock musician who was taken from the music world prematurely back on 29 May 1997 at the age of 30, dying in very mysterious circumstances after drowning in the Mississippi River. This album was released after some legal entanglements between Sony Music and Jeff Buckley’s estate, run by his mother, Mary Guibert. It was fairly clear that Sony, at least in Jeff Buckley’s mother’s eyes, was attempting to exploit the death of Jeff Buckley by attempting to remix his final recordings. Fortunately, before that happened, this was released as a sort of music based Will and Final Testament of the wonderful yet short-lived music career of Jeff Buckley as a compromise between Sony Music and Jeff Buckley’s mother’s wishes as a divisive double album. In this double album release, Jeff Buckley’s final recordings for his never-released but expected second album, My Sweetheart The Drunk, are here. Although this is not Jeff Buckley’s masterpiece album release, 1994’s Grace, it is still a very important album listening experience, given the history of Jeff Buckley and his music journey. Produced by Television’s guitarist extraordinaire, Tom Verlaine, it was recorded during 1996 and 1997 in various locations around the USA. Jeff Buckley’s band included: Jeff Buckley (guitars and vocals); Michael Tighe (guitar); Mick Grondahl (bass guitar) and Parker Kindred (drums). This was originally released on 26 May 1998. The double album received mostly positive reviews from critics. Let’s take a listen to this album, and we shall hear how it goes.

1. The Sky Is A Landfill begins with guitar swells in the right channel before launching into a good and very Radiohead-sounding tune. Jeff Buckley and friends sound wonderful on this song, and it comes wonderfully and beautifully alive throughout. Our music legend sounds absolutely wonderful here, and it is clear that he and Radiohead inspired each other at this time. Nonetheless, the music and lyrics are deeply and musically sensitive and wonderful throughout. A rebellion against the nature of the corporate system, Jeff Buckley was a wonderful and inspired musician, more so than people ever give him credit for. The sounds, music and playing throughout are really top and fantastic. Perhaps painting an autobiographical picture of events, Jeff Buckley does not sound particularly happy here. But he has his point throughout. A beautiful, powerful and wonderful tune with power and energy with guitars, Jeff Buckley humanises Rock Music to a higher level. An absolutely sweet tune and worth hearing, to this day. A highly enjoyable listen from start to finish, with a screaming guitar solo at the end. A really awesome and interesting song to hear. Great.

2. Everybody Here Wants You begins with some sturdy and reverberated drum beats, entering into a sweet and tender song that definitely has talent throughout. Some impressionistic and artistic lyrics are present here, and this tune is deeply passionate and romantic. Jeff Buckley delivers a fantastic music statement throughout, and he is passionately and deeply in love with a lady that everyone is after. One can truly hear the talent and majesty of Jeff Buckley’s singing, songwriting and guitar playing talent throughout. An undeniably awesome and sweet listen from start to finish, this is a killer tune to hear. Men can get very jealous and possessive about their lovers at times, and this song accurately reflects that. An awesome and tuneful piece of music that sounds extremely cool, this is a winner of a listen. One can truly appreciate Jeff Buckley’s skills and talents on this tune, and he is definite proof of a talent who died far too young. An absolutely awesome listen with some precise and nimble bass guitar work. This is a seriously good song. Amazing from start to finish. A very lovely listen.

3. Opened Once begins with some dream-like textures and enters into some sweet and awesome Fender Telecaster guitar playing. It quickly launches into a fantastic-sounding song with high-octave vocals and a sense of gorgeous euphoria about it all. Jeff Buckley sounds super sweet and fantastic on this song. This has a Psychedelic edge to it all, which is surprising as Jeff Buckley was more of a fan of heroin than LSD. A really gorgeous, simple and articulate Rock jam, this sounds incredibly sweet and gorgeous throughout. No doubt a big inspiration to many musicians and artists that followed, Jeff Buckley sounds really great on this recording. He may have been in a life of chaos by this point, but he could still create beautiful and monumental-sounding music. A really top tune. Period.

4. Nightmares By The Sea is a very dark tune and was likely more so where it was at for Jeff Buckley. He sings deeply about scary and upsetting events in his typical Rock manner. Needless to say, if you look into Jeff Buckley’s life, he didn’t have an incredibly easy time with things, and this song articulates that. Nonetheless, this is another great song that has power, musicianship and definite impression throughout. A very cool and humane-sounding tune. We all have our own demons to deal with in life. In any case, this is a great release for fans of the man who want to hear more. One can still hear where Radiohead got their music ideas from, which isn’t entirely original on their part. All the same, this music sounds extremely good to hear. Another dark yet solidly good tune. Awesome.

5. Yard Of Blonde Girls begins with fuzz laden guitars and snappy drumbeats. This emerges into a really cool and interesting listen that sounds extremely interesting and good to hear. This music is a really deep, emotional and interesting tune about the lust a young male can have. This sounds like quite a quirky and odd tune to listen to on Jeff Buckley’s part. A really cool and warped sounding song, this is a celebratory song for the young and pretty ladies out there. That’s the intention of this song. Sounding very 1990s throughout, Jeff Buckley and his bandmates make an interesting and punchy statement musically. “Here we come…so run, run, run!” sings Jeff Buckley sweetly. A solid and underrated music gem from yesteryear, this sounds extremely awesome and wonderful to hear. A slow burner but a winner of a song nonetheless. Great to hear from start to finish.

6. Witches’ Rave is a wacky title for a song. It begins with 1960s-styled chords and harmonies, launching into a very, very good song that still sounds fresh and interesting to this very day. The lyrics are imaginative and different, and our man Jeff Buckley is having a bit of a ball here. This sounds quite unlike anything else at the time, and it is a really cool and quirky addition, especially lyrically, to Jeff Beck’s musical canon of songs. The chorus, in particular, is very uplifting and likely drug-influenced. This music sounds really sweet, original and eclectic throughout. Jeff Buckley sounds really cool, interesting and intellectual throughout as well. The harmony-led breakdown in the second half is deliciously sublime. Nonetheless, a really very cool and rewarding listen from start to finish. Absolutely top and sweet to hear, this is a really very joyful song. “I can’t help from looking outside for a guarantee,” indeed. This is a sweet and epic winner of a song. Great to hear.

7. New Year’s Prayer begins with Live Forever styled drumbeats, lush guitars and pleasant keyboard melodies. This is a sweet and melodic tune that has definitely a unique music experience, with an awesomely repeated lyric: “Feel no shame for what you are”. Again, very Oasis styled. This music and song sounds are absolutely fantastic throughout, and Jeff Buckley reveals himself to be an absolutely wonderful and impressive musician throughout these songs. A really, very, very cool and inspired listen from start to finish. A sweet tune with some cryptic lyrics and excellent sounds to match, this is a really sublime listening experience. Jeff Buckley certainly had talent, and he is sorely missed in the world of music. A sensationally good tune to listen to, this is a good song to start off any new year celebrations with a flavour, consistency and music edge to it all. It ends with the drumbeat from the start, which sounds near perfect and brilliantly great, with some singing and fragments of music thrown in for a good mixture. Absolutely awesome.

8. Morning Theft begins with some Nirvana-esque riffing and enters into a cool tune that has awesome and sweet character in it all. Jeff Buckley is the rambling drunk on these songs, and he sounds like a performer and gem long lost over the years. A seriously cool and interesting song about the darkest of relationships and a possibly deteriorating psyche from our music legend. Nonetheless, this is absolutely beautiful and wonderful to hear from start to finish. A really lovely listen about love and lifetimes lost. Jeff Buckley sings from the heart, and he sounds deep and moving throughout. A gorgeous and powerful ballad by a guy who will be sorely missed in the world of music. Awesome to hear, and just majestic throughout. It ends with some dark yet pretty guitar fills.

9. Vancouver comes next with some pretty Fender Telecaster-styled guitar fills, pounding drums and gurgling bass guitar, for Jeff Buckley to sing nicely over it all. A really timeless and sweet tune to hear, with some nice violining/slide guitar throughout, this is truly a fantastic listen. A bit like U2’s The Joshua Tree (1987) album, this is yet another music winner by Jeff Buckley. A very awesome and dark tune, exposing the raw and emotional nature of Jeff Buckley’s unique talent, this is Rock Music for those of you who are actually highly sensitive people out there. Nonetheless, a really great listening experience that deserves your time and attention. A great song to this day, with its powerful and emotional conclusion at the end. Brilliant.

10. You & I begins with some dark electronic sounds and launches into a very Joy Division-esque song. Jeff Buckley sings deeply and emotionally throughout, and it is just him on vocals and keyboards. Deep and tragic, this sounds absolutely wonderful and fantastic throughout. Jeff Buckley sings from a heartfelt and magical state of pure despair and negativity throughout. Very, very sad to hear. He articulates the worst of all worlds into music, and this is an epic and sensationally moving listening experience. A true winner of a listen, this is the sound of a very desperate and conflicted man. No doubt that many, in hindsight, will reflect on this particular song and be reminded of his sad and untimely death. A sad tune, to say the least. Jeff Buckley sings deeply and in a very moving way about the problems people can have in love. He does offer some light on the situation but does not sound at all happy throughout. An absolutely beautiful song to listen to, this is a sweet and pretty song that concludes a wonderful side one of this album with a memorable and fantastically moving recording. Absolutely brilliant and darker than the depths of hell.

11. Nightmares By The Sea – Original Mix is the beginning of the non-Sony Side Two of the album. It begins with some deep, dark guitar parts and launches into a raw and uncompromising tune that sounds really excellent to hear. This sounds very, very close to Joy Division’s music in retrospect. Think along the lines of their Substance (1988) compilation album release, and you are there. A rawer and much more stripped-down tune by Jeff Buckley that sounds very close-to-the-bone. Jeff Buckley is the 1990s version of Syd Barrett on this album, except exchange the UK for the USA, Psychedelia for Grunge and LSD for Heroin. All in all, this is a very, very good song to listen to, once again. This sounds much more characteristic of Jeff Buckley’s music at the time, and it is still a tremendous effort to listen to. Very, very cool. Hats off to Jeff Buckley. This still sounds so good today. A winner of a song with an abrasive nature and character to it all.

12. New Year’s Prayer – Original Mix begins with the iconic drumbeat and sounds much rawer and more powerful as a result. This is a really great listening experience for Jeff Buckley fans, and although Sony did clear things up on the first half of this album, there is none of that here. A punchy, melodic and sweet tune that has power, expression and finesse, Jeff Buckley would be proud of this music. A genuinely good listening experience, this sounds really powerful and moving throughout. A cool tune to listen to and to be inspired, this is magical. It is a rawer, stripped-down version of the main song from this album. Nonethless, an original and crafty listening experience that articulates one of the best talents of the 1990s. A really punchy and powerful tune to hear. Worth every moment to hear. The funky guitar playing throughout is very sweet to listen to. An amazing song to hear.

13. Haven’t You Heard is obviously a mockery from the start. It sounds like a take on the older, Hippie Music of yesteryear. Even so, this is yet another classic Jeff Buckley tune that has some wonderful playing and sounds throughout. A great song about the difficulties in one’s life, this still sounds incredibly amazing, to this very day. A really cool and inspired tune with some amazing Fender Telecaster sounds, this is a cool song to listen to. Singing about paranoia and other strange feelings, Jeff Buckley is a beast of imagination and emotional impact throughout. This is yet another very good song that absolutely needs to be heard. Some super sweet harmonies are present in the second half of this song, alongside some manic guitar riffing. A really phenomenal tune that deserves to be heard and listened to. Joyous.

14. I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted To Be) begins with some muted guitar chords and twinkling sounds in the background, launching into a deep, dark and bluesy sounding tune. Jeff Buckley sings moodily and deeply on this song, and this tune sounds morbid indeed. A really moving and interesting song throughout. Jeff Buckley sounds like he is delivering a rather dark, deep and disturbed song about the pitfalls of love. Nonetheless, this is a very deep and interesting song that showcases Jeff Buckley’s wonderful and unique talent throughout. Jeff Buckley does not sound at all happy on this song, and he delivers a powerful and interesting music statement throughout. This is just guitars and vocals throughout, but it retains enough interest and musicianship throughout that it sounds just as good as the rest of this double album. The vocals stream in and out of consciousness, and Jeff Buckley sounds really fantastic here. A cool song to listen to, despite being in a Michael Hutchence-styled mood.

15. Murder Suicide Meteor Slave is a very heavy song title and begins with some distorted and electronically treated guitar fragments. This quickly launches into a weird tune that sounds weird and odd. Jeff Buckley obviously wasn’t in the greatest state of mind upon recording this song, and by all reports, he was undergoing a decline in his own mental health around this time. This is a weird song, but it is intriguingly listenable, all the same. A warped listening experience that is actually difficult to listen to, but all the same, a slice of musical genius. Jeff Buckley eventually returns over guitars and sitars, which sound very discordant and difficult to sit through. Still, this sounds very interesting for what it is. A wacked out tune that is very deep, moving and artistic, Jeff Buckley is a music legend, even on songs that are fairly difficult to get through, such as this one. In any case, this is likely the afterthought of a ton of drug use, but it does sound fantastic for what this is. Super cool in its own way, although few will actually sit through this song. Jeff Buckley was likely feeling suicidal here. It ends early on with a montage of sound that follows, which sounds pseudo-satanic. Weird.

16. Back in N.Y.C. begins with a very New York-esque guitar boogie and has some dark and weird music fragments throughout. Jeff Buckley enters with a nicely sung vocal, but this song isn’t the best, to be honest. It sounds like a music drag. The intention for good music is there, but unfortunately, Jeff Buckley and his group have made an off sounding tune here. It’s difficult to know exactly what this is supposed to be about. It comes across as a real chore musically, and it sounds like garbage, to be honest. One cannot help but feel that this side of Jeff Buckley is not the best at all. It is a really pathetic and poor excuse to listen to. This, in retrospect, should have been junked. A poor attempt at making a sonic pastiche rather than an actual song to listen to. Skip ahead if you wish, this drags down the rest of the material. A sad example of a disaster of musical ideas and a poor representation of sounds in a song that should not have existed in the first place. Very awful, although there are glimpses of potential throughout. Also, this is too long for such a poor offering. It just isn’t good enough. At all. Understandably, Jeff Buckley wasn’t in a good mental state around this time, and this tune accurately reflects that. A very, very weird and off sounding song. A good example of where it was starting to go wrong for him as a musician. Not at all good to hear. Very disappointing. Just bad.

17. Demon John is a piece with some rather eerie spoken word parts mixed in with some muted and rather awful guitar progressions. Again, this is not what listeners nor Jeff Buckley needed. Sure, the guy was a great and wonderful music talent, but by this stage, this is a very unsatisfying listen about demonic things and bad circumstances. A real drag for a piece of music, this is neither thrilling nor inspiring to hear. It is largely experimental, just not in a really good way to listen to or to hear. This reflects the darker and more intimate side of Jeff Buckley in a musical way, but it doesn’t sound at all pleasing or lovely. In any case, one can appreciate this, especially if you are a Jeff Buckley fan, but otherwise, this is more miss than hit. Better than the track before it, however, this has some promise to it all. Nonetheless, a good song to listen to, in a way, although it is very, very dark and confrontational. A good tune to listen to, all the same for all its flaws. It could have been a lot better, though.

18. Your Flesh Is So Nice is another dark and dirty sounding song with some interesting guitar work, and it enters into a powerful and interesting song full of lust. There are direct references to sexual activity and kinks here, and Jeff Buckley sounds really interesting and punchy on this tune. If anything, this is a song that is about the male side of being dirty and lustful throughout. An unusual song for Jeff Buckley to cover this sort of music (it’s his own answer to Nine Inch Nails’s Closer track), this is a deep and interesting phenomenon musically in a song. Again, this isn’t the best in a musical way. The discordant guitars kind of ruin it here, although one can appreciate this effort. At least it is relatively short to hear.

19. Jewel Box begins with some discordant guitars, leading into an interesting and more straightforward song about male sexual desire. This sounds very, very much like Nirvana. Jeff Buckley channels the spirit of Kurt Cobain in a raw, powerful and confrontational song throughout. This is a better song, even if the dark mood and disturbing music setting are present. A really cool tune to listen to, all the same. This is a wonderful and powerful listen for what it is. Some interesting lyrics are present in this song, and this music is a really sweet listen, in a disturbed way. Jeff Buckley was, indeed, an incredible music talent on this planet who will be sorely missed. A really cool and interesting song about the possible impregnation of a woman, this does sound interesting both musically and lyrically. Good to hear.

20. Satisfied Mind – Live at WMFU, East Orange, NJ – Oct 1992 is a live cover by Jeff Buckley. Instantly, it sounds pretty, beautiful and fantastic with some excellent and classy Fender Telecaster work by our main man. This is ridiculously and beautifully good to hear. A real winner of a song, this sounds super sweet and lovely to listen to. Jeff Buckley sings in his trademark falsetto on this song, and he sounds really wonderful and uplifting on this song. A very cool and sweet listen throughout. This represents the best of Jeff Buckley in the very early days of his music career. A majestic and beautiful song about the stupidity of chasing money exclusively in one’s life, this is a powerful and pretty tune to listen to. Absolutely wonderful. This is the better side of Jeff Buckley that more people out there need to hear. A sweet and moving tune to hear, this sounds absolutely beautiful. A really good song about the realities of life, this is a sad and moving tune that has a strong moral message throughout it all. Very, very nice to listen to. A fantastic listen by one of the all-time music greats, his falsetto sounds absolutely fantastic throughout it all. Very, very moving.

21. Gunshot Glitter begins with some truly awful guitar playing and sounds really horrid. Goodness knows what they were trying to do here. Jeff Buckley sings nicely over the top of it all, but this is not a good listen throughout. A very sad and destructive sounding song with little promise nor hope about it all, this should not have seen the light of day. A very dark, deep and moody tune that does not really deserve to be heard here. This is for only those who have been through the darkest of places in their own life and are ready to face their demons full on. A really moving and sad tune, in a way. Jeff Buckley reaches an unusually high sung note where his voice breaks. Even so, he doesn’t sound happy or fulfilled here on this song. This points out the fact that Jeff Buckley wasn’t on a good trajectory later on in life, although his death was unlikely suicide. A very dark, deep and revealing song to listen to, this is going to be difficult for many people to get through. All in all, a good but psychologically disturbing listening experience. “Paranoia…politician, demon!” sums it all up in life. A good but very, very dark listen.

22. Thousand Fold is the final track on this double album, with some dark and moody guitar chords and riffs to go on with. This is a very deep and personal sounding song with Jeff Buckley, and he delivers a warped and rather Bluesy music statement on this song. Another dark and moody sounding, but this does sound a lot better than what came before it. A really beautiful listen, this sounds absolutely sweet and wonderful. Very deep, and the sound of a man shattered by society, but trying to make good music in the process. A really cool and inspiring listen throughout. This ends the album on a sad note as we finish up. A good song, all the same. Very interesting music.

This album is a mishmash of double album material. However, for all its flaws, it is very much an essential music-listening release by one of the greatest and most misunderstood musicians of the 1990s. Jeff Buckley’s soul and spirit are all over this unique and essential double album. The first half is the album release that should have been, whilst the second half is a glimpse into things when they were going wrong for him. Nonetheless, this is a solid music statement and one that generally can be recommended to listeners. Should you listen to this album? If you love sensitive, introspective Rock Music, do give this a try. People who are looking for more upbeat music may wish to look elsewhere, however.

A decent swan song to the life of Jeff Buckley.

8/10