Grace (Jeff Buckley Album)

''Grace'' is the only studio album by the American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, released on August 15, 1994 in Europe and on August 23, 1994 in the United States by Columbia Records. It was produced by Buckley and Andy Wallace.

After moving from Los Angeles to New York City in 1991, Buckley amassed a following through his performances at Sin-é, a cafe in the East Village, and signed to Columbia in 1993. He recorded ''Grace'' in Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York, with musicians including Gary Lucas, Mick Grondahl, Michael Tighe and Matt Johnson. It includes versions of the jazz standard " Lilac Wine", the hymn " Corpus Christi Carol" and the 1984 Leonard Cohen song " Hallelujah".

''Grace'' reached number 149 on the US ''Billboard'' 200, below Columbia's expectations, and initially received mixed reviews. After Buckley's death in 1997, its critical standing grew and it was praised by musicians including Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan and David Bowie. By 2011, it had achieved sales of two million, and in 2016 it was certified platinum in the US.

''Rolling Stone'' included ''Grace'' in three of its lists of the 500 greatest albums and named Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" one of the 500 greatest songs. In 2008, "Hallelujah" became Buckley's first number one on ''Billboard''s Hot Digital Songs and reached number two in the UK singles chart. In 2014, "Hallelujah" was inducted into the American Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.

Background

In Los Angeles in the early 1990s, Buckley met the guitarist Gary Lucas and wrote the songs "Grace" and " Mojo Pin" with him. He performed both songs during his brief time as a member of Lucas's band Gods and Monsters.

Buckley moved to New York City in 1991, and performed regularly at Sin-é, a cafe in the East Village, Manhattan. He built a following and attracted attention from major record labels. In October 1992, Buckley signed a record contract with Columbia Records. His debut EP, '' Live at Sin-é'', was released in 1993.''''

In the weeks before recording began for his debut album, Buckley assembled a band and delayed work until he felt he had found the right musicians. He met the bassist Mick Grondahl at a concert at Columbia University, and recruited him following a jam session at Buckley's apartment.'''' Buckley's girlfriend, Rebecca Moore, introduced him to the drummer Matt Johnson, and Buckley invited him to audition at a rehearsal, where they created the structure for "Dream Brother". The band began recording ''Grace'' soon after. Johnson said it was "really scary" to go from meeting someone to recording so quickly.

Recording

''Grace'' was produced by Andy Wallace and recorded in Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York. Buckley experimented extensively with arrangements and recording techniques. He found the process of recording contrary to his improvisational performance style, and said later: "It's not like a live show where you play it and it just disappears into the air like smoke. It's like painting, sound painting. It's in a crystalized form, so it's very nerve-wracking: which brain cell do I put down here forever and ever?" The Woodstock jazz musician Karl Berger wrote and conducted string arrangements with Buckley.

Recording was disrupted when Buckley was upset by a negative review of ''Live at Sin-é'' in ''Newsday'', which likened his voice to Michael Bolton and wrote that he was derivative of "black idioms ... awkwardly reach ngfor a balance of emotion and technique, eventually relying on sheer voice of will, oversinging, flaking out". Wallace said Buckley was "almost apoplectic" about the criticism and stopped work for two days.

As he had not completed enough original songs for an album, Buckley recorded three covers: the jazz standard " Lilac Wine", the hymn " Corpus Christi Carol" (based on an arrangement by Benjamin Britten), and the 1984 Leonard Cohen song " Hallelujah". Buckley based his version of "Hallelujah" on the cover by John Cale, and was not familiar with Cohen's original. He recorded more than 20 takes; the final version was edited together from several recordings. Lucas contributed guitar to the songs he co-wrote, "Grace" and "Mojo Pin".

Near the end of the sessions, Buckley presented another song, "Forget Her", and he and the band quickly recorded it. Columbia felt the song had commercial potential, but Buckley and the band were unsure. In early 1994, when ''Grace'' was almost complete, Buckley enlisted another guitarist, Moore's childhood friend Michael Tighe. During one rehearsal, Tighe played a descending chord progression that Buckley developed into " So Real". While recording B-sides for the ''Grace'' singles, the band quickly recorded "So Real" and Buckley used it to replace "Forget Her". Tighe recalled: "He got really excited and was like, ‘Oh, my record is saved because I have this song 'So Real' now ... He felt that it tipped the balance of that record to the favorable side of the spectrum, aesthetically." The decision concerned the executives, but Buckley insisted. Buckley recorded overdubs at studios in Manhattan and New Jersey.

Cover

The cover photograph was taken by Buckley's friend Merri Cyr. It depicts Buckley with his eyes closed, holding a microphone and wearing a women's sequinned jacket he purchased from a thrift store. Buckley was listening to a playback of "Dream Brother" when the photo was taken. The Columbia executives felt it sent the wrong message; some felt he looked like the new wave singer Adam Ant, while the Sony head, Don Ienner, said he looked like a lounge singer. Buckley rejected Columbia's suggested alternatives, saying he liked the peaceful expression on his face listening to music. Cyr said the photo captured Buckley's "split personality" and the conflict he felt seeking media exposure on a major label while "wanting to act like he was on an indie label".

Music

''Entertainment Weekly'' described ''Grace'' as a blend of "choirboy cabaret" and Led Zeppelin guitar, with vocals that "spiral into spasms of romantic despair". '' Uncut'' said it combined "androgynous vocals, ’70s rock, power chords and heroic drumming". The lyrics for "Grace" were inspired by Buckley's separation from his ex-girlfriend at the airport before moving to New York City.

Release

Buckley toured internationally for 18 months to promote ''Grace''. According to the '' Mojo'' critic Jim Irvin, the performances "veered between delicate acoustic sets and full-scale sonic onslaughts", with Buckley "becoming increasingly interested in the harder end of the sound and the power of a band". "Grace", " Last Goodbye", " So Real" and " Eternal Life" were released as singles.

''Grace'' did not meet Columbia's sales expectations and did not achieve wide popularity in Buckley's lifetime. It received little radio airplay. It spent seven weeks on the US ''Billboard'' 200, reaching number 149. By the time of Buckley's death in 1997, it had sold 175,000 copies. It was more successful in Australia, where it reached number 9 on the ARIA charts.

Critical reception

''Grace'' initially received mixed reviews. According to ''Pitchfork'', its jazz and classical influences disappointed critics expecting "the next great alt-rock savior". In ''Rolling Stone'', Stephanie Zacharek wrote that Buckley "sounds like a man who doesn't yet know what he wants to be", and that the "meticulous arrangements sound too orchestrated, too ornate". She felt his cover of "Hallelujah" was not "battered or desperate enough", but praised "Lilac Wine", writing: "His voice seems weighted down with tears that just won't come out the normal way." In ''The Village Voice'', Robert Christgau wrote that Buckley was "beholden to Zeppelin and Nina Simone and Chris Whitley and the Cocteau Twins ... Let us pray the force of hype blows him all the way to Uranus."

Dimitri Ehlrich of ''Entertainment Weekly'' wrote that ''Grace'' was "dreamy and stunningly original", describing Buckley's vocals as "an angel and devil wrapped in one". Another ''Entertainment Weekly'' writer, David Browne, named it the sixth-best album of the year. He felt that though Buckley encompassed "every cliché of the tortured bohemian artist", he was "aiming for a higher plane, musically and spiritually, than any other singer-songwriter right now, and he succeeds enough to matter". The ''Guardian'' critic Caroline Sullivan wrote that ''Grace'' was a "stunningly accomplished debut". In the ''Chicago Tribune'', Greg Kot wrote that Buckley's voice had "a soulful intensity that sends chills", matched by the "rolling-and-tumbling dynamic" of the music. ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' said it was "a romantic masterpiece" and a "pivotal, defining work".

Legacy

In February 1997, Buckley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, while working on his second album, '' My Sweetheart the Drunk''. On May 29, he drowned while swimming in the Wolf River, a tributary of the Mississippi. Sales of ''Grace'' increased after his death. By 2011, it had achieved worldwide sales of two million. In February 2016, it was certified platinum in the US for sales of one million. In December 2008, Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah" reached number two on the UK singles chart, behind a version by Alexandra Burke, who performed it on the fifth series of the British TV show ''The X Factor''.

With the growth of the internet in the 2000s, ''Grace'' became popular among millennial and Generation Z listeners. An expanded edition was released in 2004, with an additional CD of bonus tracks and a DVD making-of documentary. Reviewing the reissue, ''Pitchfork'' wrote that "''Grace'' remains one of the most engaging, inspired records ever made, and its 10 original songs serve as the best possible portrait of Buckley as a diva, songwriter and artist".

''Q'' readers voted ''Grace'' the 75th-greatest album of all time in 1998 and the 13th-greatest in 2005. The British critic Colin Larkin included it at number 99 in the third edition of his book '' All Time Top 1000 Albums'' (2000), writing that it "achieved a perfection that was staggering for a debut album". ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 303 on its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums, number 304 in its 2009 list and 147 on its 2020 list. In 2003, ''Rolling Stone'' named Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah" number 259 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. On 2 April 2013, it was announced that Buckley's cover would be inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.

In 2006, ''Mojo'' named ''Grace'' the number-one "modern rock classic", and it was voted Australia's second-favorite album on the television special '' My Favourite Album''. In 2011, VH1 named ''Grace'' the 73rd-greatest rock and roll album. In a worldwide poll of 40,000 people organized by ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' and ''NME'' in 2006, ''Grace'' was voted the 23rd-greatest album. In 2014, ''Guitar World'' placed ''Grace'' at number 26 in its list of "iconic albums that defined 1994".

The Led Zeppelin guitarist, Jimmy Page, said ''Grace'' was "close to being my favorite album of the decade". The Led Zeppelin singer, Robert Plant, was also complimentary. Bob Dylan named Buckley one of the decade's great songwriters, and David Bowie considered ''Grace'' the best album ever made. In 2010, the Smiths singer Morrissey, one of Buckley's influences, named ''Grace'' one of his favorite albums. The Muse singer and guitarist Matt Bellamy said he did not believe his falsetto would be suitable for rock music until he heard ''Grace''. In 2020, Bellamy purchased the Fender Telecaster Buckley used on ''Grace'' and has used it in recordings.

Accolades

* denotes an unranked list

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from ''Graces liner notes.
* Jeff Buckley – vocals, guitars, harmonium (on " Lover, You Should've Come Over"), organ, dulcimer, additional tabla (on " Dream Brother"), production (on " So Real")
Additional Performers
* Mick Grøndahl – bass
* Matt Johnson – drums, percussion, vibraphone (on "Dream Brother")
* Michael Tighe – guitar (on "So Real")
* Gary Lucas – "Magical Guitarness" (on " Mojo Pin" and "Grace")
* Loris Holland – organ (on "Lover, You Should've Come Over")
* Misha Masud – tabla (on "Dream Brother")
* Karl Berger – string arrangements

Technical Personnel
* Andy Wallace – production, engineering, mixing
* Howie Weinberg – mastering
* Steve Berkowitz – executive producer
* Clif Norrell – engineering (on "So Real"), additional engineering ("Corpus Christi Carol" and "Dream Brother")
* Chris Laidlaw – assistant engineer
* Steve Sisco – assistant engineer
* Bryant W. Jackson – assistant engineer
* Reggie Griffith – assistant engineer
* Nicky Lindeman – art direction, design
* Christopher Austopchuk – art direction, design
* Jennifer Cohen – design assistant
* Merri Cyr – photography
* David Gahr – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

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{{Authority control

Jeff Buckley albums
1994 debut albums
Albums produced by Andy Wallace (producer)
Columbia Records albums
Jazz-rock albums