You ever hear an album that just carries you away? Just takes you somewhere else entirely — into a memory or into an emotion you can barely describe?
Jeff Buckley did that to me.
I can still remember the night I heard him for the first time. A few friends and I were in the car on the way back from downtown Savannah. The moon was HUGE and full that night. Andrew put this tape in the player, and we all just sat in silence, windows rolled down, as the songs carried us away.
It was his voice that got me first — a wailing tenor wrapped up in longing, sounding at times like some foreign shaman entranced in a spell. Then it was the strange guitars, songs that sounded like they came from the middle ages. I mean, how does a song like \”Corpus Christi Carol\” or \”Mojo Pin\” end up on a rock record?
\”So Real\” has always been the standout track for me. These slow, building verses over swirling, trippy guitars as a heartbroken narrator reminisces over a lost love. Suddenly, it explodes into this ear-shattering, screaming murder of chaotic guitars and then silence. Then he whispers, \”I love you…but I\’m afraid to love you.\” There\’s so much lust and fear and longing and danger wrapped up in that one line. It\’s breathtaking.
I never thought Buckley got the wide recognition he deserved. He had a minor hit with the song \”Last Goodbye,\” which was a kind of adult contemporary style rock song. His cover of Leonard Cohen\’s \”Hallelujah\” has become the standard version of the song because Buckley sounds like a broken-down angel singing it.
There are straight up rockers on the album, too. \”Eternal Life\” is an absolute screamer, and both \”Grace\” and \”Dream Brother\” bring a lot more guitars and energy. All of them display some incredible chops for a guitar maestro who rarely gets the respect he deserves. Check out some of his live videos to see more of what I\’m talking about.
\”Grace\” is an album I\’ve listened to more times than I could count, and never just one song. This is an album you block out time for, an album you intentionally sit with, ruminate over, and let carry you wherever it wants to take you.