An announcement was made earlier this week that shocked music lovers of generations. Some unheard material from one of the most short-lived musical geniuses of our time had been collated into an album. This musician was the late Jeff Buckley (1966-97).
Rising out of nowhere in the early nineties with the universal success of his debut album ‘Grace’ (1994), the poetic story of Jeff Buckley is a tragic one. With his sudden death at the age of 30, from drowning in the Mississippi River in 1997, it was only fair that the music world felt it was being robbed of true greatness. Still in the middle of recording his sophomore album ‘Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk’ (1998), it was evident that the creative mind of Buckley was only getting started, with so much more to contribute to music, establishing his demise as one of the most tragic in music history.
Well the prayers of deprived fans have well and truly been answered this week with the release of Buckley’s unheard album ‘You And I’. The album is a collection of demos Buckley recorded during his first session with Columbia Records in 1993 before the iconic succession of ‘Grace’ that framed the efficacious beginnings of his career as a musician. The album is a humble testament of covers from Buckley’s favourite artists- featuring the likes of Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Sly and The Family Stone, and The Smiths; his ability to silence a room is rendered in his haunting interpretations of their work.
While the album lacks the creative lyricism and acoustic experimentation Buckley harvests in his original work, it provides insight into the early Jeff Buckley- a freshly plucked raw talent that was do-eyed and daunted by the corporate music world, but evidently possessed a raw audio quality that resonated with people unanimously. Just one listen of his cover of Sly and The Family Stone’s ‘Everyday People’ exposes the wide vocal range Buckley owned yet executed with ease and nonchalance.
With the 9 song line-up of covers on the album, the remaining 10th tune is an original taste of an early Buckley creation ‘Dream of You and I’ which is where the album bears it’s title ‘You And I’. To describe the original track as a song is probably technically incorrect- the instrumentals are loosely there, with guitar melodies that gradually drift into a hallucinogenic lullaby; yet aside from reciting the song’s title, the track is lyrically exempt due to it’s pre-production phase. However, we do get to engage with the inner workings of Buckley’s brain, as he talks about the inspiration behind the song during the recording as coming from a song he heard in a dream. Buckley describes the setting in a college auditorium where a grunge band is playing a space-like jam about AIDS at an AIDS rally. It seems far-fetched and instantaneous but nevertheless a humble addition to the mix.
Despite his noteworthy legacy, one cannot help but feel that Buckley’s musical spirit has been resurrected, and is arguably ever more present in the honest inner-workings of ‘You And I’.
While it is not comparable as a creative testament to ‘Grace’, it is a showcasing of combined talent between old artists and this notorious performer, in a relaxed setting that perfectly accentuates the soul of Buckley as we knew him best.