Mystery White Boy

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Despite posthumous raves to the contrary, Jeff Buckley was not a brilliant artist during his brief lifetime. Grace, his lone studio release while he was alive, was raw and charged, but also terrifically overwrought and unfocused. Buckley tried to meld his enormous talents with his towering influences (Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, Jimi Hendrix), but his potential remained unfulfilled at the time of his drowning in 1997. Mystery White Boy is the second in the inevitable parade of postmortem products from Buckley. While powerful in places, the album still hints at more promise than it delivers. On wild, electro-soul excursions like “Mojo Pin” and “Eternal Life,” Buckley errs on the side of overstatement, using the live venue as an opportunity to turn already grandiose songs into absurdly melodramatic overtures. On more subtle turns like “Last Goodbye,” it’s clear that Buckley’s a truly gifted vocalist simply looking for the right place for his voice. Unfortunately, he never found it, but it’s to his credit that the search itself is worth a listen.