Jeff Buckley: Live At Sin-e : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Solely for its moaning, keening, scatting 10-minute take on Van Morrison's classic "The Way Young Lovers Do," Jeff Buckley's EP could be judged a rich debut, but its other songs are equally gripping. There are only four tunes, only a singer and his guitar, yet for depth and daring, this is music vast in suggestiveness. Buckley's other cover is Edith Piaf's "Je N'en Connais Pas la Fin," and what's startling is how, in French and English, he takes the tortured cabaret diva's melancholy straight, with no chaser of camp or reverence. Thematically complex and sharply imagistic ("A burning red horizon screams our names"), Buckley's originals, "Mojo Pin" (written with ex-Beefhcart guitarist Gary Lucas) and "Eternal Life," are unified by yearning and an honest passion that refuses to inhibit intelligence. The singer's father, Tim Buckley, one of the most poetic voices of the '60s, is long overdue for a revival; in their own highly distinctive way, these songs honor and extend his spirit.