Grace: An Album Review 

By: Emily Eade 

Grace by Jeff Buckley, was the artist's only studio album. This album is so notable to many listeners because it consisted of Buckley’s soft, angelical voice, and powerful yet elegant instrumentals. Grace was a representation of an up-and-coming artist who combined covers with impressive original songwriting.

“Grace” is the second song on the album. The mixture of his vocal melody and the instruments are unforgettable. This song took inspiration from saying goodbye to his then-girlfriend at the airport on a rainy day. This can be seen through the lyrics, “And she weeps on my arm. Walking to the bright lights in sorrow. Oh drink a bit of wine we both might go tomorrow, oh my love. And the rain is falling and I believe my time has come. It reminds me of the pain I might leave, leave behind.” 

“Hallelujah” is the sixth and most famous song on the album. This cover of the Leonard Cohen song may be more famous than the original. It has to do with his soft vocal melody combined with the powerful electric guitar. The song starts off with an isolated electric guitar; eventually, Buckley’s voice follows. Cohen has explained that the song is about love that went sour and gone stale. Buckley gave this song a new life, adding more emotion and heartache. 

“Eternal Life” is the ninth song on the album. This song is about anger towards prolific events that happened in history. He would explain in an interview, “This is a song about… it's an angry song. Life’s too short and too complicated for people behind desks and people behind masks to be ruining other people’s lives, initiating force against other people’s lives on the basis of their income, their color, their class, their religious beliefs, their whatever…” The final song of this album is “Forget Her”. This song was Buckley’s way of expressing the pain he felt after his girlfriend left him. This can be seen through the lyrics, “Her love is a rose, pale and dying. Dropping her petals in land unknown.” 

Buckley would say in a documentary, “Grace is what matters in anything—especially life, especially growth, tragedy, pain, love, death. That’s a quality that I admire very greatly… It keeps you from destroying things too foolishly. It sort of keeps you alive.” This quote perfectly describes the album as a whole. Grace was a masterpiece by Jeff Buckley. It was noticeable he was going somewhere, but Buckley would suddenly pass three years later in a drowning. This album would become very well-known throughout the years and influence many musicians.