Unbelievably, it's a decade since great white hope Jeff Buckley wandered into the treacherous waters of the Wolf River, putting an end to the life and career of one of the most promising musicians to emerge during the 1990s.
He left behind one bewitching studio album - the pretty-much-peerless Grace, together with a brace of live EPs. His second album was still under construction, and the posthumously released Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk combined rough songwriter demos with more fully realised studio roughs. It showed a talent hungry to develop and evolve.
For an artist who has already been relentlessly packaged and repackaged since his death, this further anthology seems completely pointless. Grace is probably the best and most complete introduction to his work available: anyone who is drawn in that way is likely to swiftly collect the rest. Nevertheless, So Real is being marketed as an introduction to his music for those who've managed to stay out of the way of his mythos over the last decade, and the hagiographic liner notes from everyone from Rufus Wainwright to Brandon Boyd do their best to tell you what to feel.
It might get the attention of a few, but the only carrot on offer to existing fans is a rare live cover of the Smiths' I Know It's Over from a 1995 radio session at Sony Studios; placed last in the running order and designed to wring the emotions ("oh mother I can feel the soil falling over my head..."). With songs such as Sky Blue Skin (described by Buckley bandmate Michael Tighe as one of his greatest songs) still languishing in the vaults, it's hard to see why this live cover merited inclusion.
If you've never heard Jeff Buckley - go out and buy Grace. If you have - there's nothing new for you here. Considering how restless and mercurial a soul Buckley was, it's ironic in the extreme that in death he's been reduced to endless repetition.
Three stars only - not because the music isn't brilliant, but because this is such an unimaginative and cash-motivated release.
By: Clare O'Brien, Subba-Cultcha.com
