Grace [Enhanced]

Forgive me if I can't complete this review with excesses of Jeff-love gushing, because this is probably my favourite album of all time.
We'll start with the voice, shall we? Jeff Buckley has not only inherited his father, Tim's, earth-shattering range, but his incredible emotion and soul, also. It doesn't hit you immediately, as the opening song, 'Mojo Pin', is quite a slow-burner, and the volume and tone build up gradually to reveal a genre-transcending vocal.
The combination of genres is very important on this album, in fact, and although Buckley's influences seem to stretch from traditional folk to the bluesy heavy rock of Led Zeppelin (whom he stated he listened to as a child), his voice carries him through.
The title track, 'Grace', could be described as an uplifting death-plea! - "If it's my time coming, then I'm not afraid." Opening with 'magical guitarness', it has fantastic melody and rhythm, and the squealing climax is completely overpowering.
To have three covers on an album of ten may not appear to be a particularly good advert for Jeff Buckley's immense songwriting talent, but he truly conquers other people's songs in a way that makes you instantly forget other versions. 'Lilac Wine' is so sensitive and emotional. The musical arrangement really fits the lyrics: "sweet and heady, like my life." The vocals on Britten's 'Corpus Christi Carol' is jaw-dropping. How can he sing like that?! But, the most famous of the covers, and deservedly so, is 'Hallelujah'. This could be seen as the album's masterpiece: truly grand and wonderfully charged with the darkest of emotion.
On 'So Real' and 'Eternal Life' we see more of Jeff Buckley's rock side. The latter is delightfully angry - "sounds to me just like a prison for the walking dead" - and the tension is created dramatically through harsher guitars than you expect. The strong/gentle contrasts in 'So Real' run the risk of being manic, but Buckley is merely lost in the emotion, as is the listener. The final track, 'Dream Brother', is a delightfully trippy finale, that acts to calm you down after what has inevitably been an amazing tumult of emotional and musical journeys.
'Last Goodbye' and 'Lover, You Should've Come Over' are my two favourite songs on this album. Both are fairly laid-back pop-rock tracks, and, as ever, the vocal control and melodic construction is fantastic. However, the lyrics really stand out here, with a graceful poetry: "the tear that hangs inside my soul forever", "kiss me out of desire, baby, and not consolation". These are true and deeply moving epics. Buckley speaks to the universal experience of love, and it truly feels like he's singing straight to your soul.

Jeff Buckley was best described by Bono from U2, as "a pure drop in an ocean of noise". Wheh you listen to "Grace", you can see exactly what he meant.

The first thing that hits you is Jeff's amazing voice, an instrument of true wonder, he could falsetto to such beauty that it inspired the likes of Thom Yorke from Radiohead to reach new vocal heights on their 95 album The Bends. He could also sing more deeper emotional tones, forever leaving the listener with a thrilling guessing game of where he would take them next. Grace is also enriched by the wonderful songs and arrangements that Jeff used to showcase his unique voice, songs full of love and regret, loss and salvation. It is hard to put into words the deep emotional connection this album brings to the listener.

It is now a standard cross to bear for every new singer-songwriter feted by the music press, to be called Jeff Buckleyesque, it is an unfair term, as nobody could ever match his insightful songwriting and vocal talent. There are some songs on Grace that are simply unmatched in modern rock history. He was with us only for a short space of time until his untimely death in 1997, but Grace will ensure that his genius will never be forgtten.

Grace is an album that should be in everybody's home. A pure drop indeed.

Jeff Buckley is the kind of artist you want to keep to yourself, when his voice reaches those high notes on "Last Goodbye", he isn't a world famous musican anymore, he's singing for you, those lyrics that give you goosepimples when you read them and hear them, they're about you, and you'd give anything to have written them yourself. Recently, i've moved away from home to go to uni, and when i arrived i couldn't believe that the people I met had never heard of him. I played them "Grace" and a couple of songs from " Sketches..." and i remember watching them while they listened and realising during "Grace" how quiet it was in the room, knowing that the hairs on everyones necks were standing up.

And it's for that reason he has to be shared. You know he'll make a difference to peoples lives.

It's hard to pick out favorites as each song represents something thats happened in my life whilst i've had it, but i'd go for "The Last Goodbye" because it reminds me of someone special, "Lover, You Should Have Come Over" because those lyrics rang so true and "Eternal Life", a brilliant song to put on before you go out.

If you want a girl to fall in love with you, introduce her to Jeff Buckley. It'll work because something this beautiful can never be denied.