Mojo Pin - 4
Grace - 4
Last Goodbye - 4
Lilac Wine - 3
So Real - 4
Hallelujah - 5
Lover, You Should Have Come Over - 5
Corpus Christi Carol (For Roy) - 3
Eternal Life - 4
Dream Brother - 4
Total - 40 stars / 10 tracks = 4.00 stars
I'm a little nervous to do this review, as, with this score, I am officially calling Grace the greatest album I have ever heard. It's not that I'm second-guessing myself, I just want to make sure I get this right. So let's get right into it.
"Mojo Pin" gave me chills the first time I heard it. It's haunting and beautiful.
"Grace" is just as gripping, with more momentum and energy.
"Last Goodbye" is an honest farewell to a relationship that manages to be simple and unpretentious without compromising quality.
"Lilac Wine" is more tedious than the rest of the tracks. It's slow and laboured, without any real emotional payoff.
"So Real" is an inflated 3.5-star. It flows with the tone of the rest of the album, but doesn't stand strongly on its own legs.
"Hallelujah" is, in my opinion, the 2nd greatest song in popular music (the 1st being Johnny Cash's cover of "Hurt"). Buckley's iconic opening and variation within the choruses and verses make this stand out above the original, an already incredible song.
"Lover, You Should Have Come Over" is the best possible track to follow up "Hallelujah." It really hits its brilliance starting with the line "too young to hold on and too old to just break free and run." From there, the song really takes off.
"Corpus Christi Carol" is a neo-Renaissance piece, complete with Early Modern English verb endings. It's not not out of place on the album, and fairly unremarkable aside from this contrast.
"Eternal Life" picks everything right back up and heads into the heaviest track on the album. It showcases Buckley's ability to sing a different kind of music just as well as he does in the slower, soulful songs.
"Dream Brother" is an ethereal (shout-out to ZM, he knows what it's about) soundscape that acts as a near perfect epilogue to an incredible album.
Gonna actually check this one out, thanks to your review.
ReplyDeleteI have a mad love affair with "Hallelujah", I've got like, four artist's versions of it on my computer, but yeah, Buckley's has got to be one of the best.
Have you heard k.d. Lang's take on it? Also pretty good.
I heard her... or, I guess I should say, I watched her lip-sync to it at the opening ceremonies at the Olympics and very much liked what I heard.
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