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Thirty Years Since Grace: An Ode to Jeff Buckley’s Timeless Classic

Photo of Grace Vinyl via Flickr (Creative Commons License)

In my early teenage years, I strutted about decked out in my dad’s Jeff Buckley T-shirt, which had the iconic Grace album cover sprawled across it. He had bought it at Buckley’s concert in Shepherd’s Bush Empire on March 4th, 1995, just two years before the singer passed away. To my father’s dismay, I wore this T-shirt without ever having listened to the album, wearing it in favour of its design. Each time he’d see me wear it, he’d eagerly exclaim “You know Georgia, you should really listen to that album!” and sentimentally recite the story of him attending the concert. I instead behaved in the fashion of a true stubborn teenager, staying keenly focused on discovering music through my own lens, and not giving much thought to the album. Grace was ironically destined, however, to become one of my favourite albums.

The 24th of August 2024 marked thirty years since the release of Grace, Jeff Buckley’s only full-length studio album completed during his tragically brief lifetime. The project garnered a somewhat negative reaction from critics at the time of its release, with a Rolling Stone article describing him as “a man who doesn’t yet know what he wants to be”. Nonetheless, Grace’s legacy has inevitably expanded enormously since its release, and deservedly so. Grace is an eclectic project filled with a plethora of exceptional songs formed by Buckley’s remarkable vocal ability, elegant lyricism, and copious creativity.

It wasn’t until I was 17 that I came across the album’s seventh track, 'Lover, You Should’ve Come Over', and felt instantly mesmerised by every aspect of the song. Possessing an air of agonising beauty, the song boasts rich, layered instrumentation which includes both electric and acoustic guitar, as well as the unique usage of the hammond organ. Buckley’s stirring vocals, which frequently rises into falsetto, are infused with a deep sense of yearning. This is especially evident in the refrains, paired with some widely renowned harrowing lyricism like “Too young to hold on, and too old to just break free and run”, and later, “My body turns and yearns for a sleep that won’t ever come”. Culminating the obsession, passion, and misery that form the song’s foundation is the line, “All my blood for the sweetness of her laughter”, sung in a moment which epitomises both Buckley’s lyrical and musical genius.

Immediately enticed, I was prompted to listen to the whole album, which I proceeded to have on repeat for months. Grace takes the listener on a turbulent journey, primarily detailing the trials and tribulations of love and heartbreak. The first track 'Mojo Pin' eases the listener in gently, displaying a wistful atmosphere with delicate guitar patterns. It spirals into something much heavier towards the end, foreshadowing the overall intensity of the album.

This is followed by the titular track 'Grace', which, in Buckley’s own words, is about “not feeling so bad about your own mortality when you have true love”. The song captures a certain cinematic romance that beautifully and effectively transcends the way we would often expect to hear love communicated in music. Similarly to some of my other favourites, namely 'So Real' and 'Eternal Life', 'Grace' feels so delicately crafted from an elegant fusion of Buckley’s innate musicality and affinity for vulnerability. The essence of this continues to present itself in Buckley’s covers, of which there are three: 'Lilac Wine', 'Corpus Christi Carol', and most famously 'Hallelujah'. Each cover is taken in a distinctly different direction than that of the original; it is clear Buckley wasn’t trying to be anyone else. He instead portrayed a unique ability to fruitfully blend his distinguished style with a multitude of songs from diverse genres.

Though a 2004 posthumous reissue of the album saw the addition of 'Forget Her' as the final track, Grace originally concluded with 'Dream Brother'. The song contains vastly contrasting sections, showing off Buckley’s ability to pull off both a soft, subtle vocal quality as well as an extraordinarily passionate one, something almost reminiscent of a howl. The song builds to a rousing climax that sees Buckley’s vocals compete with the guitars and drums to be heard, achieving an eerie juxtaposition of harmony and discomfort. The heightened intensity makes 'Dream Brother' the ideal closing song, feeling like a ferocious musical summary of Grace as a whole.

It is worth mentioning that some of today’s most respected popular artists look to Jeff Buckley as a quintessential figure of influence: Lana Del Rey, Phoebe Bridgers, and Coldplay to name a few. Most significantly however, Radiohead have repeatedly acknowledged their admiration for the singer, even publicly revealing how they felt inclined to rush to the studio after having seen Buckley perform, channelling him into their iconic 1995 hit 'Fake Plastic Trees'. Encompassed by brutally melancholic lyricism and a gradually ascending sense of vehemence, Buckley’s influence is ever-apparent on the track.

Creating a project so influential, so potent, and so diverse as Grace would surely be an enigmatic task. An album bursting with raw emotion, Grace had an undeniably comprehensive impact on the direction of much of today’s music. The legacy of Jeff Buckley is profound - celebrated in abundance for the past thirty years, one can only believe it will continue to inspire for the next thirty and beyond.