I've been away from civilisation for a LONG time and had some of the greatest experiences of my life...
I've been away from civilisation for a LONG time and had some of the greatest experiences of my life travelling in Ecuador. Now, finally, I'm back on the internet.
Member since:02.06.2002
Reviews:16
Members who trust:5
I've put off writing an opinion on this album for so long, despite it being one of my all-time favourites in my collection. I never felt that anything I could write would be deserving of it in any way at all. But now, just past the 5-year anniversary of Jeff's death, Brad Pitt has made me realise that I really, really need to.
Yes, Brad Pitt. One of Buckley's most prominent fans (along with his wife Jennifer), he was talking on a recent BBC 4 documentary about how it constantly surprises him that so few people still know about Jeff Buckley's music. This is undeniably true, perhaps because he only made one album, but then...I don't see why that could make a difference. Just one look at the intensity of devotion that Jeff has created in the fans that he does have and you can see that this is a phenomenon that more people simply have to wake up to. They need it, even if they don't know it yet.
Firstly the background information. Mostly I don't bother with this sort of thing but to understand Jeff's music you have to know about his life.
The son of 60s folk-rock/experimental pioneer Tim Buckley, he never really knew his father (who died of a heroin overdose at 28). Tim left Jeff's mother while she was pregnant, and Jeff always regarded his stepfather as his dad. Yet it was impossible for him to escape his father's legacy. For one thing, he looked, moved, acted, uncannily like him. For another, he had inherited his incredible musical talent and stunning voice.
And of course, the press were constantly asking about Tim, and the similarities between them. When one journalist commented on Jeff's 'sense of abandon' while on stage and asked whether he felt his father had had this, too, Jeff replied, 'Yes - he abandoned me.'
Jeff began his musical career as a guitarist - and a supremely talented one at that. But it is for his voice that he will always be known. It took a while for him to begin to perform as a solo artist and record a demo, but soon he was the hottest thing in New York and Columbia signed him a $1 million, 3-album deal. After getting a band together, work began on Jeff's first and last studio album, Grace.
If people generally know one thing about Jeff Buckley, it's that he drowned. In 1997, just after overcoming his writer's block and having his band flown in to Memphis to begin recording his second album, My Sweetheart the Drunk, Jeff wandered into the river for a swim. In the few seconds that his companion on the shore looked away, he had vanished. His band had just landed at Memphis airport. Jeff’s body was found floating in the water two days later.
OK, I know this is beginning to sound more like a review of Jeff's life than his album, but I also know that his story is what made the album the way it is - as with any work of art - and adds an air of poignancy.
Grace is an incredibly varied mix, taking in Jeff's huge range of musical tastes. Three of the tracks are covers - Lilac Wine, Hallelujah and Britten's Corpus Christi Carol. The last, especially, is not the most obvious of choices but it works. The rest are all written/co-written by Jeff. There is one heavy rock track, Eternal Life (balancing out Britten's Carol preceding it), and one Indian-tinged track, with a drone backing and beautifully chromatic melody, Dream Brother.
The other tracks fall into one roughly similar category - Mojo Pin, Grace, Last Goodbye, So Real and Lover, You Should've Come Over. All Buckley's tracks are incredibly complex. He can pluck melodies seemingly out of nowhere, or lift a song higher and higher through some new chord progression. There are constant twists and turns, and the lyrics can seem scarily prophetic, especially Grace. 'It's my time coming, I'm not afraid to die...I'm not afraid to go, but it goes so slow'.
Every track is intoxicating, beautiful, haunting, layered and a fusion of a million different ideas and licks, riffs, lyrics. Many deal with love - not just its happy or sad moments but the whole depth and range of emotions that that word covers - elation, despair, everything in-between.
The covers Jeff makes his own. Hallelujah, especially, has here a depth and emotion that Cohen never brought to the song. It's played so simply, on nothing but an acoustic guitar, making it the track where Jeff's voice is left at its most pure. It is exquisitely gorgeous, and I know I'm really waxing lyrical here, but this is the only piece of music I have ever heard that has brought me to tears the first time I listened simply because it was so powerfully beautiful.
Jeff's composition isn't easy to get into and this really is an album that grows on you. I know that this is such a cliché, but every time you'll hear something different and feel something new. It's so intense and so very, very moving. Don't put this CD on when you're with friends or driving - put it on when it's late at night and you're alone with it. This record requires your full attention and can't be approached in the way that most can.
His voice is the thing that everyone comments on. Jeff Buckley had the most amazing voice I have ever heard. I don't doubt that opera virtuosos have a larger range and more impressive technical abilities, but what's that compared to the talent that Jeff had - the talent to convey pure emotion through his voice. If you could distil someone's soul and amplify it, this is what it would sound like. It's a direct communication from his thoughts and feelings to yours, and there's an undercurrent running through the songs that you can't pinpoint yet will sweep you away. After the last track has ended, you're left feeling as if you've just experienced every emotion on the album yourself.
Of course, Jeff's tragic death makes this album even more special. We have live recordings, and the demos that the next album was to be recorded from, but Jeff was such a perfectionist. This is the only record we have that he felt he had created to the extent where he could end the recording sessions and let the rest of the world listen in. Jeff, his band, and his record company were certain that the next album would be even better. Grace would be difficult to improve upon but I'm certain that Jeff could have done it. He never got the chance, and we're left to make the most of what we have of his voice and his music. I don’t think that there’s any way that I can put across just how damn wonderful, unique and absolutely essential to anybody this record is. It’s in a class of its own. I just hope that someone who reads this will want to go out and buy the album! I can’t believe it took me until last year to find it (admittedly I was only 7 when it was released) and (along with Mr Pitt, of course!) we’ve got to spread the word.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Something i have never quite understood is the tendency to, while praising one musician (usually s/he is dead), step on another musician of whom the former has done a cover. I am getting a bit tired of reading about how Buckley's rendition of Cohen's "hallelujah" filled in the emotion that Cohen's lacked. First of all, it's a cover--Cohen was not trying to emulate the same things that Buckley was, and for me, it's a bit ridiculous to shit on the original. Do we ever read about how someone repainted Picasso's Guernica, but gave it the color that Picasso's was lacking? No. Second, Buckley's rendition was performed with an electric, not an acoustic guitar--it is quite obvious, actually, that it's an electric so this comment baffled me when i read it. but this fit with the rest of the over glorification of buckley, who was even able to make an acoustic sound electric! My God! Of course we love reading things that make our heroes out to be heroes--even if they were only human. Do we really think Buckley would have wanted some syrupy article about how he was perfect, a God of sorts? Probably not. In fact, it is this sort of exaggerated lauding that probably sent him up river--and i won't take that back. Buckley himself questioned why the public loved him so--'what did i do to deserve this?' And we just keep feeding the fire, people.
bazeebond 20.10.2004 16:43
Fantastic review. Very emotional to read actually. I have been a fan of J.B's for a little while. I had first listened to the album 'Grace' after completing my own album. My mixing and mastering guru recommended that I listen to the album as an example of one form of mastering we could use for my album. I have to tell you that listening to that album, in a purpose built, acoustically perfect mastering room, through equipment and speakers worth more than some houses, was an experience I wont forget. I immediately went out and bought the album... the other albums... the DVD... you get the picture.... I was hooked! A truly great review about a truly great artist who will be sadly missed.
luverlymaid 09.01.2003 15:42
I have to be honest, I'm not one of the people lucky enough to be able to sample the delights of the Beeb's extra digital channels- so I the fist time I encountered the name of J.B was when Badly Drawn Boy contemplates the deaths of his heros; the likes of Kurt Cobain, Jeff Buckley, John Lennon and Frank Sinatra in the verse "You Were Right." I knew a fair bit about the aforementioned singers, all in the exception of Mr Buckley, which prompted me to do a bit of a search on 'ere... and now has me vying for a copy of Grace! A great informative and well written op, ta!
Here's what they say about Jeff Buckley: "He died too young". Here's why they say ... more
it:Graceis simply one of the most amazing things you can do with your ears and a little digitally-encoded disc. He inherited the voice of his father, the legendary Tim Bu...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Here's what they say about Jeff Buckley: "He died too young". Here's why they say it: ... more
Grace is simply one of the most amazing things you can do with your ears and a little digitally-encoded disc. He inherited the voice of his father, the legendary Tim ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Here's what they say about Jeff Buckley: "He died too young". Here's why they say ... more
it:Graceis simply one of the most amazing things you can do with your ears and a little digitally-encoded disc. He inherited the voice of his father, the legendary Tim Bu...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Here's what they say about Jeff Buckley: "He died too young". Here's why they say ... more
it:Graceis simply one of the most amazing things you can do with your ears and a little digitally-encoded disc. He inherited the voice of his father, the legendary Tim Bu...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Here's what they say about Jeff Buckley: "He died too young". Here's why they say it: ... more
Grace is simply one of the most amazing things you can do with your ears and a little digitally-encoded disc. He inherited the voice of his father, the legendary Tim ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Jun 15th, 2002
exceptional by (3%):
very helpful by (94%):
helpful by (3%):
![River Is Wide, The [Remastered] - Forum (The)](http://imagesb.ciao.com/iuk/images/products/small/251/prod_small-6006251.jpg)
