Grace [Legacy Edition] [Digipak] [Remaster]

Performer: Jeff Buckley
Artist: Shudder To Think
Engineer: Andy Wallace; Clif Norrell...
Producer: Andy Wallace; Jeff Buckley; Steve Berkowitz...
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel: Jeff Buckley (vocals, guitar, harmonium, organ, dulcimer, tabla); Gary Lucas, Michael Tighe (guitar); Loris Holland (organ); Matt Johnson (vibraphone, drums, percussion); Mick Grondahl (bass); Misha Masud (tabla). The Legacy Edition of GRACE includes 2 bonus discs featuring rare and previously unreleased tracks, and five music videos ("Grace," "Last Goodbye," "So Real," "Eternal Life," "Forget Her") and an expanded edition of the MAKING OF GRACE video documentary. Disc Two holds more than an hour of glorious outtakes fully as captivating as the album tracks. These include explosive live versions of the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams" and Big Star's "Kanga Roo," as well as the haunting, previously unheard original tune "Forget Her," and the heart-stopping, soul-tinged Shudder to Think collaboration "I Want Someone Badly." As if all this weren't enough, the third disc contains five videos and a documentary, providing a true multi-media experience of Buckley's transcendent gift. Personnel: Jeff Buckley (vocals, guitar, dulcimer, harmonium, organ, tabla); Craig Wedren, Nathan Larson (guitar, background vocals); Michael Tighe (guitar); Loris Holland (organ); Matt Johnson (vibraphone, drums, percussion); Mick Grondahl, Stuart Hill (bass guitar); Kevin March (drums); Misha Masud (tabla); Karl Berger . Jeff Buckley was many things, but humble wasn't one of them. Grace is an audacious debut album, filled with sweeping choruses, bombastic arrangements, searching lyrics, and above all, the richly textured voice of Buckley himself, which resembled a cross between Robert Plant, Van Morrison, and his father Tim. And that's a fair starting point for his music: Grace sounds like a Led Zeppelin album written by an ambitious folkie with a fondness for lounge jazz. At his best -- the soaring title track, "Last Goodbye," and the mournful "Lover, You Should've Come Over" -- Buckley's grasp met his reach with startling results; at its worst, Grace is merely promising. [The Legacy Edition added a second disc of previously unheard material, including "Forget Her," and an expanded "Making of Grace" DVD.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.55) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Rolling Stone (11/3/94, p.101) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...Buckley's got huge ears and an even bigger record collection: He jumbles jazz, R&B, blues and rock references with such apparent nonchalance that he can seem like a showoff..." Spin (10/94, p.111) - Highly Recommended - "...If Buckley continues to evolve in the direction that GRACE indicates, only good things can result..." Entertainment Weekly (Spring 2000, p.166) - Ranked #3 in EW's "Top 10 albums of the '90s" Entertainment Weekly (8/26-9/2/94, p.112) - "...a dreamy and original set of songs....Too good to be true..." - Rating: A+ Q (10/01, p.86) - Ranked #14 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime" Q (12/99, p.82) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." Q (9/94, p.98) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...This is no pretty folk LP, it's a powerful album of unlocked emotions, poetry and drama, where ringing guitar and driving drums mix with swaying spartan tenderness and almost awkward rhythmic changes..." Q (p.130) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[He] hit his stride via covers and the barest outlines of songs. And LEGACY is padded out with most of this difficult journey." Uncut (p.124) - 5 stars out of 5 - "Ten years on and remastered, GRACE sounds more swoopingly lyrical and breathlessly eclectic than ever." Melody Maker (8/13/94, p.34) - Recommended - "...It's a voice that leaps tall buildings in a single bound, smells of sex and Chanel and never stoops to showboating..." Musician (11/94, pp.87-88) - "...a faultless expansion of Buckley's solo shows in New York clubs..." Village Voice (2/28/95) - Ranked #23 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. Mojo (Publisher) (p.69) - Ranked #1 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "There is no place yet for the places he and his voice can go." Mojo (Publisher) (1/95, p.50) - Included in Mojo's "25 Best Albums of 1994" - "...Audacious, adventurous, often tear-jerkingly beautiful and spiritually rousing, GRACE has it all..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.116) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[M]arvel at the awesome original album, still brimming with the sound of a soul trying to have its say while there's still a chance." New York Times (Publisher) (1/5/95, p.C15) - Included on Stephen Holden's list of the Top 10 Albums Of '94 - "...The year's most impressive solo debut." NME (Magazine) (12/24/94, p.22) - Ranked #21 in NME's list of the "Top 50 Albums Of 1994." NME (Magazine) (8/12/00, p.28) - Ranked #12 in The NME "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums". NME (Magazine) (8/13/94, p.44) - 9 (out of 10) - "...Just for once, the child of a star looks capable of transcending the family legacy. From here on in, the sky's the limit..."

Though Jeff Buckley was adamant about not being compared to his father Tim, his voice and free-floating, improvisatory folk/rock/jazz style bore inescapable echoes of genetic heritage. The Michael Jordan of singers, he had a voice that could soar or sting at will, and his untimely drowning in 1997 squelched one of the most promising careers of the decade.

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