Grace (Jeff-Buckley-Album)
Occupation
- Vocals, guitar, harmonium: Jeff Buckley
- Guitar ( Track 1 & 2): Gary Lucas
- Guitar ( Track 5 ): Michael Tighe
- Bass: Mick Grondahl
- Drums, vibraphone: Matt Johnson
Grace is the only completed studio album by American musician Jeff Buckley. It is attributable to the alternative rock genre and was published on 23 August 1994.
Genesis
Jeff Buckley, son of songwriter Tim Buckley, began his professional career as a kind of Barsänger at New York's Cafe Sin - é and had made a name there. His performances were at first only from solo appearances with electric guitar. During this phase, many songs were created for his debut album. Another creative thrust brought the collaboration with former Captain Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas, who also appears on the album in appearance. As a result, Buckley recruited a band around the drummer Matt Johnson and the Danish- American bassist Mick Grondahl. During the recording of the album Michael Tighe was joined by lead guitar.
The recordings for the album looked after Andy Wallace as a producer, who had acquired as a sound engineer of the Nirvana album Nevermind awareness. Since the own material was insufficient, three cover versions were taken on the album. The song So Real was during a tour and was produced by Buckley personally. In later versions of the song Forget Her has been added as the final piece.
Content
The album is attributable to the alternative rock, the guitar is the dominant instrument. Noteworthy is the stylistic bandwidth that process Buckley and his band on the album alongside dynamic post-rock ballads like Mojo Pin, jazz classics like Lilac Wine ( known by Nina Simone) can be a piece by Benjamin Britten, spacious folk rock like Last Goodbye, a solo rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah (whose arrangement he took over from John Cale and greatly reduced ) and Dream Brother, which is influenced by Indian classical music. Also can be a song in a contemporary grunge style make up ( Eternal Life).
In addition to the stylistic diversity Buckley cites numerous influences that find themselves on the album: including Nina Simone, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Morrissey, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Alex Chilton, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Stevie Wonder, Edith Piaf, Judy Garland and Freddie Mercury.
When most of the songs are ballads longer ( an average of five minutes) at a moderate pace, which serve mainly to give Buckley a space for his vocals to the album is clearly constructed. The songs are designed to Buckley's enormous vocal range ( about four octaves), as well as his clear falsetto and the alteration between different registers back. Buckley's voice is classified as a high tenor and a countertenor. The metaphorical lyrics of the album deal with the ubiquity of death, of devotional love, be from leaving and also the relationship with his estranged father.
Influence and reception
Grace is one of the best albums of the 90s. Numerous subsequent singers rely on his influence, including Thom Yorke of Radiohead, as well as Matthew Bellamy of Muse and Chris Martin of Coldplay. Established musicians expressed their euphoric part, including Bono, Elvis Costello and Jimmy Page. Critical voices came, among others, by Robert Christgau, the Buckley described as " syncretic asshole".
Particularly successful and well known was his interpretation of the Leonard Cohen piece Hallelujah.
Title list
On later versions include: