8th of Blaugust - G - Grace, Jeff Buckley

Grace is an album put out by Jeff Buckley. To be more accurate, the only album put out by Jeff Buckley. The story of Jeff Buckley is a sad one to be honest. His album was never that big in his home country of the US when it came out in 1994 but it did catch on everywhere else, especially in Australia and France. He also was in the middle of writing and recording his follow up that he went for an evening swim in the Wolf River in Tennessee and ended up drowning. Ever since then he has been just like one of those artists that became more famous after they have died.

I decided to listen to the entire album and just type my thoughts as I was listening. I decided on saying no to iTunes as well and play it on (what can now be considered as) the old fashioned CD.

Track 1 - Mojo Pin

The eery start that moves between to the light shuffle-esque rhythm of the verse to the mid-heavy acoustic straight chorus imtermixed with the accelerating thrash climaxes. A great start for the listen to get in the mood of what is to come.

Track 2 - Grace

After the intro of the first track the start of the titular song throws you deeper into the emotional atmosphere of the whole recording. The compound guitar interludes circle around my head as Jeff Buckley’s voice kicks back in with his tails of despair. This is definitely an album you listen to as loud as you can when you’re in a feeling of complete woe and don’t wish to be disturbed. As Jeff Buckley gives one last wail you wait in anticipation for the next track.

Track 3 - Last Goodbye

Once again, to be thrown back in to the emotional roller-coaster! Last Goodbye is a song clearly about the sad end that is the eventual rejection from what used to be a close relationship. The strings that are are introduced at the halfway point seem to reenforce the sense of conclusion to the singers situation.

Track 4 - Lilac Wine

This soliloquy is dedicated to the joys and sorrows of resorting to the bottom of the next beverage. There is a lush sense to this song but still seems to also give the impression of a hangover. Yet with those consequences you can still feel the feeling of enjoyment.

Track 5 - So Real

But then the reality sets in. As the time signature swaps between 4/4 and 3/4 throughout the verses you get the really uneasy sense. But then the slow thrashing Rock Chorus kicks in and you know the feeling of despair is not going away.

Track 6 - Hallelujah

This is the recording he was most famous for. It’s a cover of the classic song by Leonard Cohen but an incredibly good one. It seems to break out the darkness of the previous track by grabbing your attention and never letting go. Even the breath at the start ads to the atmosphere of the whole piece.

Track 7 - Lover You Should’ve Come Over

They managed to find a way out of that piece by juxtaposing with a wistful Accordion intro into a this lush rock waltz all about a romantic yearning. It is a heavy yet positively uplifting piece (in the sense of Jeff Buckley anyway) that just just plucks away at your heart strings.

Track 8 - Corpus Christi Carol

This is Jeff Buckley’s interoperation of english composer Benjamin Britten’s ‘A Boy was Born’ (1933) setting of a middle age hymn first discovered in 1504. Yet it doesn’t feel out of place in the slightest. The sole voice and guitar atmosphere just seems like it made sense.

Track 9 - Eternal Life

Then is transisions back into a deep, heavy and grungy thrash-a-thon. This is actually my favourite track on the whole album when I listen to it. It manages to throw you through a whirlwind of pride and despair in only a way that Jeff Buckley can.

Track 10 - Dream Brother

The final track starts instantly putting you in that eerie setting it was in when it started but manages to crank that feeling up to eleven by introducing the fear factor. As the instrumental section comes in you are left wondering where and how this is going to conclude. It’s a disturbingly great and solid finish to the album as it fades down before the final verse leaving you in a state of complete focus to go on with your life as if it was all just a dream.

It was great to play it from start to finish as I have not actually done that with this album for a few years. It made me long for a time before the iPod made everyone get lazy by shuffling their entire song catalog. I still think there is a place for the well constructed album.

I implore you to set aside time to do nothing but just listen all the way through an entire Album. I don’t care what it is or who it is by. Whatever you do, do not skip. Just take it all in.