Disc One is the sound of a frustrated Buckley and his not-always-adept band banging it out under what seems like ample pressure. Buckley's unnerving lyrical intensity and vocal gifts make venom-filled rockers "The Sky Is A Landfill" and "Nightmares By The Sea" listenable; softer numbers "Everybody Here Wants You" (a slinky soul ballad and easily the best thing here), "Opened Once," and "Morning Theft" are merely gorgeous. Disc Two is frazzled stuff, beginning with two pointless repeats of "Nightmares" and "New Year's Prayer," and it doesn't get easier from there until the sweet, folkish "Jewel Box" at track 10. Along the way you'll encounter scraps of inspiration -- the gutsy "I Know We Could Be So Happy Baby (If We Wanted To Be)" would've been a gem if finished properly, and the spellbinding wails in the middle of "Murder Suicide Meteor Slave" suggest something beyond the torturous, distortion-scalded form heard here. The import-only cut "Gunshot Glitter" is simultaneously feral and delicate and at the very least, makes a hell of a demo. It's unfair to pass judgment on tunes like "Demon John" and the horny glam skronk of "Your Flesh Is So Nice." They're barely even songs, just the workings of an artist in the process of punishing his muse. The circumstances of Buckley's bizarre death, coupled with how close to the end of his rope he sounds here, are a little too disturbing to comprehend.

Luckily, Sweetheart ends with a good taste, the gospel elegy "Satisfied Mind." Like his cover of "Lost Highway," this is the kind of song that Jeff could sing the absolute shit out of, promising a world of beauty within the effortless flips and filigrees of his falsetto. When the book closes on Jeff Buckley, these are the moments to remember.