Many singer songwriters seem to have a "break-up" album in their catalog. This is Buckley's. Released in 2009, Research Files marked a return to music for Buckley after a lengthy hiatus. The ensuing creative inspiration resulted in several other albums which followed, many of which are collections of previously unrecorded songs that had been written years ago, and some of which are comprised of entirely new material.

Research Files begins quietly with the album's only instrumental, a solo guitar piece named Claudia, featuring a mix of intricate finger picking and lush strumming. The album continues with Buckley's unique guitar style while lyrically telling the tale of a failed relationship. As sung in the prescient song Tangible, "freedom is a tangible thing." This ephemeral notion of freedom becomes the bittersweet reality of being alone in Removing All Doubt, a track which features a layered guitar sound reminiscent of Jose Gonzalez, and is perhaps the album's penultimate track.