So Real: Songs from Jeff Buckley

Recording information: 1993 – 1997.

Although Jeff Buckley completed only one full-length album, GRACE, before his accidental drowning in 1997, the young singer-songwriter, son of the folk icon Tim Buckley, left behind a considerable legacy, inspiring an entire generation of artists. Issued a decade after his passing, SO REAL is the first collection to span Buckley’s tragically brief career, drawing tracks not only from GRACE but from the many posthumous live and studio releases that followed, most notably SKETCHES FOR MY SWEETHEART THE DRUNK, songs that Buckley was attempting to finish before he took that fateful swim in the mighty Mississippi. Half of SO REAL—including the heartrending “Last Goodbye” and a spare, passionate take on Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”—is appropriately taken from GRACE and its extended LEGACY EDITION reissue, while others tracks are culled from MY SWEETHEART (see the urgent “Vancouver”) and LIVE AT SIN-E, which introduced the world to Buckley’s stunning, multi-octave voice and equally emotive guitar playing. Bolstered by a previous, unreleased version of the baleful “I Know It’s Over,” a Smiths tune that Buckley frequently performed in concert, SO REAL serves as an excellent overview of his key recordings, though nothing tops the thrill of discovering GRACE in its entirety.