Number 3, an album nobody has guessed and an album that kind of surprised me as well when it got this high in the top 50. I wouldn't have it any other way though. I don't often show my love for this record, but for some reason it feels very personal to me, even though it's ridiculously well-known and perhaps even over-sold to the point that any of this artists's posthumous releases could be questioned on their authenticity. Not this record though. Without further ado, here's the actual write-up, which I'm actually not too happy about. It's hard to write about an album that speaks to you on a deep emotional level, so rather than sum up all tracks on this records, this is more a general impression of the record, I hope.
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3. Jeff Buckley – Grace (1994) 
Can an album be considered a ‘classic’ if it’s only 22 years old? And what if the singer is dead? Is this really a good album, or is it simply overhyped because of what we might have had, if Jeff Buckley didn’t die an untimely death at the young age of 30. Just too old for the famous 27 club, but for a singer-songwriter, he was certainly late at recording his debut album (which he did at, exactly, age 27).
There a few examples in popular music of a son surpassing his father in terms of popularity. While Tim Buckley certainly was the eccentric song-writer, his son Jeff (whom he has allegedly met only once) is certainly the more appealing. A fine-looking young man, who created an album to absolutely be proud of. Like with many artists that die prematurely, many (live) recordings have shown up, enough to make compilation album after compilation album – and even a couple of records full of new material. The only proper studio recording he made is this one, although a second album was released after his death, with roughly finished material polished enough to actually sound good. That one is titled ‘Sketches for my Sweetheart the Drunk’, which is a rather nice album. ‘Grace’ is better though, and that’s not only got to do with its legacy.
For some reason, I feel the intense need to have to justify this album being so high up on my list, mostly because of how very different it is from the rest of the bands listed up here. I can not do this, but I can hopefully explain why this album is this high up, especially since it’s overhyped, though critically acclaimed. David Bowie reportedly said once that ‘Grace’ was a so-called “desert island disc” for him, and probably the best record ever made. I kind of agree with him, in the sense that if I had to go to a desert island and could take only 5 CDs with me, this would be one of them. Definitely. I don’t really know what the other 4 would be, but this one would be there.
On my first top 50 list I had this compilation album by Jeff Buckley called ‘So Real: Songs From Jeff Buckley’, which is a great compilation, but it features roughly the same songs as on ‘Grace’, except that it adds a couple of new ones, has an alternate take from
Eternal life and a couple of live versions instead of studio recordings. In some occasions I actually prefer listening to that one, instead of this record, but this record is obviously the real deal. Featuring 11 songs, Jeff Buckley (and his band!) go through various styles of alternative rock, but the songs border heavily on folk rock and singer-songwriter style music. Although Jeff Buckley’s name is on the cover, and he does sing and play the guitar, he has a very capable band surrounding him on this record, that adds the remainder of the instruments. Though the band doesn’t stray far from traditional rock instruments, they create rich textures nonetheless.
People do not really know this about me, but apart from my band Overhaul, I have written a bunch of songs and music and performed lots of acoustic covers live. Jeff Buckley has been an enormous inspiration for me, not only as a vocalist (I love trying to emulate his voice), but also and maybe even more so in the way he uses the guitar to write songs. Jeff Buckley was a master at creating unusual chords on his guitar an managing to make stuff sound natural and good. Listen for instance to the title-track
Grace, that’s full of dissonant chords, illogical chord-progressions and brilliant melodies. I don't think Jeff Buckley ever approached the guitar (or even song-writing) from a music theoretic standpoint and the result can definitely be heard in the way his songs are structured. Great stuff.
Apart from the song-writing, probably the most notable about this album is not Buckley’s guitar-playing (which is good, but not especially ground-breaking, even though he does clearly have a signature style), but his phenomenal voice. The man could do anything, from soft vocals, to long wails, to even shouts and screams. He might not be as varied as for instance Mike Patton is, but whereas Mike Patton often sounds rather sterile or goofy, with Jeff Buckley’s voice it sounds like it comes from the heart, like he actually means what he says. Take for instance
Forget Her, a track that wasn’t released initially because Jeff felt it was too personal. On this song Jeff speaks directly to you, and you can hear his sadness.
Eternal Life is the other side of the spectrum; a rocking tune that got a full-blown grunge version on the aforementioned album ‘So Real’.
Corpus Christi Carol then, is an odd piece on this album; an interpretation of a Benjamin Britten piece, that was in turn based on a Middle English writing. Featuring Buckley exclusively in falsetto voice, this song is almost angelic compared to the rest of the record.
‘Grace’ isn’t exactly a happy record, but it’s not necessarily sad either. I’d say it’s mostly melancholic, with the subject of the lyrics often being love, in one way or another. Perhaps the best known song from this record is not one of his own, but his cover of Leonard Cohen’s
Hallelujah. This might In fact be one of those rare instances where the cover version is better known than the original. It’s a good track, but you can hear it’s not his own. His own tracks are better, more distinct and in a style that suits him better, though by all means; it’s a great cover and one worthy of all the praise it gets.
While I didn’t really get the love for ‘Grace’ or for Jeff Buckley as much, in the past couple of years it has dawned on me that I really love this album. As far as actually popular music goes, I think this is about as good as it gets, as far as I’m concerned. There is another very positive thing about this record, which doesn’t really have anything to do with quality or anything, but it still makes kind of a funny anecdote. My girlfriend and I both have very different tastes when it comes to music. This is probably one of the only records in the top 50 that she could stand to listen to. As a result, this album became the soundtrack to our first holiday together. Maybe it’s some sentimental value that put it up this high, but I don’t think that’s all of it. I just think this is song-writing at its finest and that this is one of the best albums ever. Though not exactly the ‘best’ (but what is, really), but according to this list my third favourite. I must admit, I didn’t expect this either when I started the list. It had to be like this.
Thanks for all the inspiration, for the great songs and for the beautiful voice. Like all the other people that adore this album like it’s the best thing ever, I really do wonder what would have happened had Jeff Buckley not drowned. Would there have been an even better record? Or is this record only as good because the mass hype made it that way? I don’t really think so, to be honest. It deserves all the praise it gets, because it’s definitely amazing. But so are many other albums that I probably will never hear. In fact, had Jeff Buckley not drowned, I might have never heard (of) ‘Grace’. It’s funny how those things go.
Good lord, after finishing this write-up I realised I didn’t even say a thing about the lyrics. Go look them up, they’re pure poetry. “It's never over, she's the tear that hangs inside my soul forever.”
Favourite song: Grace
Other songs worth checking out: Forget Her, So Real, Eternal Life
Other stuff by this band: Because this man died, he only released one single album. After his death, lots of stuff was released under his name though, the most notable of which a live album called ‘Mystery White Boy’. The compilation album ‘So Real: Songs From Jeff Buckley’ also features some great tracks unheard on his only record.
Topic: Elite's top 50 albums v. - 3 Years Older: #1: love is the dance of eternity (Read 47097 times)