VARIOUS ARTISTS
Dream Brother — The Songs of Tim + Jeff Buckley
Full Time Hobby/Rykodisc
· Jeff and Tim Buckley respectfully reinvented.
Despite limited commercial impact, the late Jeff Buckley's influence is ubiquitous, courtesy of Radiohead and, subsequently, Coldplay. Tim Buckley is evident in this by association, as Jeff channelled his estranged father with his feral choirboy voice. Dream Brother avoids Buckley karaoke, relocating the exploration in both father and son's work through alternating covers of both.
Tim's eight-year and nine album repertoire yields greater highlights here. Folktronica duo Tunng's bleeps and distortion suit Tim's "No Man Can Find the War" as well as the sound effects that bracketed it in 1967. Elsewhere, the Magic Numbers perfect their LCD casualty doo-wop on "Sing a Song for You," the Earlies find the hijacked hymn in "I Must Have Been Blind," and on "She Is," Sufjan Stevens reveals himself as the successor to Tim's Baroque pop troubadour. Jeff's career was cut short after 1994's swooning Grace and his performance still overshadows his songs. Contributors lean toward posthumous material here. Matthew Herbert and Dani Siciliano re-create "Everybody Here Wants You" as a Euro soundtrack. Alternatively, with its squeezebox reimagining Grace as an oddball sea-shanty, lo-fi Scot King Creosote locates something ancient and undiscovered in Jeff's songwriting. Too few tribute albums invite the listener to perceive an artist's work differently – Dream Brother is a welcome exception.
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