Jeff Buckley, son of the legendary Tim Buckley released his first full length LP in 1994. It was titled "Grace". The album featured many great moments, including a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Halleujah". Jeff was an outstanding guitarist and is still considered to be a guitar hero today. He was also blessed with an amazing voice, which was fairly versatile, which is shown by the diversity of the songs on his album. Sadly, Jeff died by drowning before he was able to complete another LP, but his album is still considered by many to be a classic. The album itself is amazing and contains absolutely no bad songs. Unfortunatly today, record companies are milking Jeff Buckley's performances to get as much out of him as possible. Every album you see out today, besides "Grace" is a bootleg, although there are avaliable copies of his unfinished second album. Remember that Grace is the original and you should definitely buy it before you buy any other Jeff Buckley albums. Every song on the album is well over the standard 3:30 mark, besides track 8 (Corpus Christi Carol).
Mojo Pin- Starts out with Jeff holding some sung notes, and sounds a bit like U2. The guitar riff then comes in, sounding great, and then the song changes to a different sound altogether. It then goes back to the original sound. The song changes again to a distorted rock song, with Jeff pushing his voice a considerable amount further. The tempo also speeds up. The drumming in this song is superb, and it's got a top sound. The song sounds fairly sad throughout most of it.
4/5
Grace- The mood of this song is a fair bit happier than the previous song. The song has an acoustic guitar in it, and some other instruments. Jeff's awesome voice shows in this song and his guitar abilites do as well. The riffs are good in the beginning and the verse riffs really set a great mood for the track. This song, in my opinion has moments that sound like they would have influenced the "boy bands" of the late 90s. Some effects on the guitars come in at the end and Jeff starts some high pitched screaming which sounds amazing with the rest of the song.
4/5
Last Goodbye- This song is great, it shows Jeff's amazing voice again, and it has a really sweet bass line. It's slightly shorter than the last song, but again it's a great song. It shows Jeff's unique style of music, whatever you would call it. It's great.
4/5
Lilac Wine- This song is slightly softer than the songs before it. The instrumentation is simple, besides Jeff's voice, which is again, amazing. The song is a lot more emotional than the last three songs and it's a real highlight.
4/5
So Real- The best song on the album so far. Jeff's voice and the instrumentes do a kind of question and answer thing after each line he sings. The lyrics are great and work very well for what the instruments are playing. In the chorus, Jeff sings the haunting line "Oh that was so real" and the bass and drums get louder and add to the music very well. Later in the song, Jeff half sings, half speaks the lyrics in a very haunting way. Then he sings high notes at the end of the song which very much achevies what he is trying to do. The drumming towards the end is also awesome.
5/5
Halleujah- A cover of a Leonard Cohen song, which shows Jeff's great guitar skill at the start. He then starts singing, which is amazing. The extremely simple bass line works very, very well in the song with the fingerpicked guitar. The lyrics are very good, although Jeff didn't write them. Jeff gets very passionate in the song, and you can tell when he does, and when he does, it's awesome. Jeff's guitar parts are amazingly beautiful with some good high stuff after the second last chorus, towards the end. This is the longest song on the album at 6:53 and the song never gets old. This song was featured on the movie "Shrek" which proves that everyone, ever has heard this song. Or maybe it was the original. Either way, you've heard the song and I think Jeff's version is better than the original. Great, great stuff.
5/5
Lover, You Should Have Come Over- A great track, the drummer is doing rimshots and Jeff's great voice once again comes out. It's quite a passionate song. There are some gospel style backing vocals in the song, which simultaniously add and detract from the song. The little lead guitar bits are great too.
4.5/5
Corpus Christi Carol- Jeff starts the song by singing falsetto and you could be forgiven for thinking it was a woman singing. It's a testament to how awesome his voice is. The music sounds like something you'd associate with large cathedrols. The instrumentation is fairly thin and it works well for you to just be able to hear Jeff's voice. This is the shortest track on the album at just under 3 minutes.
4/5
Eternal Life- This song simply put, rocks. It comes in with a heavy guitar and a pumping bass line. Jeff does rock vocals very well on this song, as well as being able to do softer songs like the previous track. As I said before, he was a very diverse vocalist. The song is a real contrast to a lot of other stuff on the album and is a real highlight and a treat to listen to. It's just a great song.
5/5
Dream Brother- The song has a mysterious sound and is reminiscent of Indian style music. It has a fairly dark sound and Jeff's vocals are brilliant as usual. THe drumming really drives the song, and like the last track, this song has a very contrasting sound to the rest of the album. There are effects on Jeff's voice to make it sound strange, and they definitely work. A fine way to end a great album.
4.5/5
This album is an absolute classic, Jeff's only album, but it is near perfect.
Final Rating: 5/5
)...it was good, probably a 4/5, but I didn't think it was all that amazing. I really liked some songs, like Grace, Eternal Life and So Real, but there were a few tracks that just dragged it down for me. Still, good album.
