Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk

Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk is a collection of polished studio tracks and four-track demos recorded by Jeff Buckley. Being dissatisfied with material recorded in the summer of 1996 and early in 1997, Buckley worked on many demos to reach the sound he was hoping to achieve. To be titled My Sweetheart, the Drunk, the album was never finished, as the rest of the band were traveling to meet Buckley at the time of his death. It was released posthumously on 26 May 1998 (see 1998 in music). Despite its unfinished state, the album garnered many positive reviews; The Onion’s AV Club called it “frustratingly incomplete, but mostly remarkable”. The album’s original sessions were produced by Television frontman Tom Verlaine.

“My Sweetheart the Drunk” was the working title that Jeff Buckley was using 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), because Jeff’s work was not finished, and therefore was just an outline, or “sketch”, of what would have been released, had Jeff been able to complete this project.

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.

* Swedish Gothic Rock band Katatonia recorded a cover of “Nightmares by the Sea”, which appeared on the “Tonight’s Decision” album and then later on “The Black Sessions” compilation.