Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Jeff Buckley - Grace

Jeff Buckley is an amazing vocalist, we all know this, he's a massive influence on Thom Yorke, and subsequently probably any singer from the late 90's onwards who uses falsetto vocals. What doesn't tend to get mentioned as often is what a fantastic and distinctive guitarist he is too. His mostly clean Telecaster sounded amazing and for me is equally as good as his voice, the eastern influenced melodies on "Dream Brother", the lightning fast arpeggio's on "Grace" and the crushing riffs on "Eternal Life" are all pretty much perfect. Grace has some amazing moments, but I could have done without the cover of Benjamin Brtten's "Corpus Christi Carol" which seems designed purely to showcase his voice, and the rather dull version of "Lilac Wine". His cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is beautiful, but it's the original, self penned songs that are the best tracks here.


The opening two songs "Mojo Pin" and "Grace" were co written with ex Captain Beefheart guitarist Gary Lucas and their swirling guitar parts are complex and gorgeous at the same time. "Last Goodbye" combines slide guitar and  a 90's alt rock bassline tocreate one of the albums most infectious songs but the absolute masterstroke on the album is "Lover You Should Have Come Over"...


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