Jeff Buckley - Grace: Legacy Edition (Bonus Dvd) (Spec)
|
List Price: Our Price: $12.99 You Save: $3.00 (19%) Availability: Usually ships in 7 to 11 days Buy Used: from $7.99 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Grace: Legacy Edition (Bonus Dvd) (Spec)
Free Music Review: Anyone want to buy an old copy of Grace?
Hit: 5 Stars
As I already owned Grace on CD, I bought this nicely packaged Legacy Edition 3-disc set (a bonus DVD disc is included) for the second disc. This contains some choice previously unreleased material along with 5 contemporary bonus tracks from EPs, soundtracks and the like, which alone justified the price of admission.
It kicks off to a great start with Forget Her, which was bumped off Grace in favour of the newly-recorded So Real, and would have made a great single. It is surprising, despite the personal reasons, that it has taken a decade for this to surface legitimately, as it surpasses even the posthumous single Everybody Here Wants You.
Dream Brother here appears both in an early version with different lyrics and a remix, named after Jeff Buckley's favorite incense, which he prepared for the promo Grace tour CD. The next handful of tracks, all cover versions, recorded at Bearsville during the Grace sessions but on a smaller informal performance stage, were spontaneously captured on 2-track DAT as Jeff played tribute to some of his musical icons - Hank Williams, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Bob Dylan, Bukka White and Nina Simone.
So Real was recorded when Michael Tighe joined the band on additional guitar, and a studio version of Big Star's Kanga-Roo, a popular extended live encore, was completed at the same time in a glorious 14-minute all-singing all-dancing version.
The film First Love, First Rites featured Jeff Buckley performing deep soul-style, with Shudder To Think, on the soundtrack, replete with Stax-style horns. The song, I Want Someone Badly was written by Nathan Larson from the band, and shows Jeff in an unfamiliar musical setting to fine effect.
The Road Version of Eternal Life had previously appeared on a CD single of Everybody Here Wants You, re-arranged from the album version to take advantage of Michael Tighe's guitar, and a good chance to hear the band rock out as they did onstage. This is also shown on the live version of Kick Out The Jams that follows, the only one I have found so far on CD, although often performed, notably at Glastonbury in 1995. This one was recorded for his record label's radio show in New York in 1994.
Finally, Strawberry Street, not mentioned in the outer-sleeve track listing, but documented in the booklet: this is one of Jeff's earliest original compositions, revisited in some experimental jams he made with Andrew Goodsight and John McNally at the Knitting Factory in May 1993 in the run-up to the Grace sessions.
All of these tracks deserve to be heard, and I need hardly say are essential to any Jeff Buckley fan.
I had no complaints with my existing CD of Grace, and in fact was slightly trepidatious of the re-mastered version in case it sounded too different. However, it blasts with renewed sheen and vigour through the speakers in its magnificently de-compressed form. Anyone want to buy an old copy of Grace?
Free Music Review: Superb upgrade.
Hit: 5 Stars
Jeff Buckley's "Grace" is one of those albums. One of those life-changing records that the first time you hear it (and I mean REALLY hear it-- it took me over ten years to really hear it), you stop what you're doing, no matter what, and you just listen. And somehow, when its done, you start it over again and it feels like everything's changed.
Buckley, who died at a young age after recording only one studio album (this one), has left a legacy with us. Showing signs of his pedigree in downtown New York, his music has that sort of unnamed quality you can't quite pin down. Simple folk songs or delicate blues somehow become quite a bit more. It could be Buckley's voice, a high tenor that feels a bit like a non-tempered instrument, is certainly evocative and filled with emotion. It could be the subtlety of the arrangements. It could be something else entirely.
The point is, its there, and the music really is transcendent. To single out any particular track is a bit unfair, its pretty much all unbelievably good, from blues-based rock ("Mojo Pin", "Eternal Life") to ballads ("Hallelujah", "Lilac Wine", "Corpus Christi Carol") and some material that just defies even such broad categories ("Last Goodbye", "So Real"). But really, star to finish, a superb record.
The Legacy Edition has been newly remastered, admittedly probably somewhat unnecessary given that the album is only a decade or so old, but noentheless the sound is crisp and clean. The bonus disc includes a dozen or so tracks, b-sides, alternate versions, and so on. The material isn't quite as essential as the album, but it's all awfully good, and certainly several of the tracks are as strong as the material on "Grace" ("Forget Her", "Mama, You Been on My Mind"). The set also contains a DVD with a "Making of Grace" documentary filmed in the '90s and updated for this set that is quite an interesting watch and runs about 30 minutes long. Buckley's band in particular is a treat to hear interviewed. The disc is also augmented by the videos for the album's singles. Finally, the liner notes contain commentary about all the bonus tracks by producer Steve Berkowitz and Mary Guibert (Jeff Buckley's mother) and a brief essay on "A Decade of Grace" by Bill Flanagan. All of this comes wrapped in a giant digipack and a plastic slipcase. All in all, it looks quite nice (and it matches "Live at Sin-E" well too-- now if only "My Sweetheart the Drunk" would get this treatment!).
All in all, this is one great value, and a nice way at looking at the legacy of what really is one of the best albums of its decade. Highly recommended.
Free Music Review: Jeff - Ten Years On
Hit: 5 Stars
Has it already been ten years? Ten years of listening to the wonderful "Grace"? Seven years without Buckley?
I often wonder what type of artist Jeff would have been had he lived. Would he have done a Dylan by sticking to his integrity? Would he have lived with a dash of eccentricity? Would he be ducking behind walls, and falling in love, wearing his heart on his sleeve? Would he have sold his beautiful downtown New York heartbreak to the corporate budget line? Or would he live in SoHo and jam in clubs despite all his Grammys?
Grace stands alone as the first and last officially finished and released album that Buckley had ever done before his death in 1997. The album itself is a pure gem. After almost 10 years of listening to this gorgeous and poignant work, it's a pleasure to celebrate this music with an anniversary edition packed with sensual outtakes and those hard to find, not seen in years music videos. I still get chills when I hear those haunting shivering guitar strings at the beginning of "Last Goodbye". Jeff was like a confused choir boy, with a voice like an angel and a fire in his belly that came through in a tidal wive of grief and longing. One minute he's singing in his sleep in "Mojo Pin", making a song sound like a sexual prayer, and then suddenly he bursts forth in a coital rythmn. "Grace", the title song laments the demise of purity and a fall from virtue. The cover of Leonard Cohen's "Halleluah" is haunting, cutting, it can send you on your knees. The longing and horny-ness of "Lover You Should have Come Over" melt into the religious "Corpus Christi" straight into the angry drive of "Eternal Love". You're left panting from exhaustion on the last track "Dream Brother". Did I leave out "Lilac Wine"? It's like velvet against your skin. "So Real"? It's like listening to a confession that turns into a burst of cathartic expression.
Who knows what kind of music Jeff would have made, or what kind of name he would have made for himself if he lived today. The fact is, we lost a wonderful, remarkable talent who had so much ahead. He left us with a refreshing sound and sensibility that other groups are trying to emulate today. Like Nick Drake before him - he was a quiet force, struck down too young. For those who know this album and don't understand the beauty, it's your loss. The re-master provides more depth to the sound and is a great tribute to its beauty. The technical quality is wonderful. For those who don't have the original album, or this special edition...get either one. Now! Go on. Go to the top of your webpage and click "add to basket".
Free Music Review: Grace: Legacy Edition
Hit: 5 Stars
Usually when I review an album, I will make detailed observations on the music, meaning, impact, and production. For this, I'm just going to review the production of the re-master of the ten songs of the original album.
Like most Buckley fans, I purchased Grace and after falling in love sought out everything I could get my hands on. So in response to those who may complain about Jeff's mother and Columbia records exploiting Buckley fans for more money, I feel the quality of the mixes and bonus materials easily warrant the additional expenditure.
As to the mix itself, I do feel that it is mostly superior to the original. All the instrumentation is clearer without sounding artificially boosted. The background noises that hide behind most of the songs have been brought out without sounding too compressed. It's much easier to hear and visualize what is going on in the mix. The drums and bass feel like they have been mixed MUCH better and sound a lot more like a solid platform for Jeff's voice and guitar. There are a few moments when it feels like Jeff's voice is a touch harsh or perhaps the slightest bit of clipping on the cymbals, but it could also be in my listening chain (laptop through Presonus interface through M-Audio BX8 studio monitors). I keep hearing things out of this mix that feel like they were added to the original recording but when I listen to my old copy I find they are just much better mixed. It may have been Mr. Wallace's relative inexperience with a project of this scope, but I can assure you it is not simply a copy of the original disc run through a multiband compressor and jacked up 10 dB to the point of clipping.
So yeah if you loved the original, you probably have scratches all over the disc like I do and owe it to yourself to pick up this copy. Well worth the $23.
Free Music Review: An Excellent Tribute
Hit: 5 Stars
Jeff Buckley only ever completed one full LP, and yet his name and his music are inspirational for all kinds of different "artists", from actors Brad Pitt and Penelope Cruz, to musical acts as varied as Coldplay, Starsailor, Out Lady Peace, Pete Yorn & Ryan Adams, among others. His music transcends genres and has become intensely appealing to pretty much every kind of music fan there is over time.
While Sketches & Buckley's live albums have been okay, I was worried when Songs To No One came out. It was not nearly close to the level of Grace, and made Jeff, who had decided to not release any of the songs off it save for two, and moreso Grace, look like a little bit of a fluke. I hope every day that hno one getting into Jeff Buckley's music will pick it up.
And then came the Sin-E Legacy Edition. Right from the get-go, on "Be Your Husband", Jeff Buckley is absolutely brilliant.
The same goes for this, but moreso; Jeff Buckley has never come off better as he does here, both in his DVD, in the re-release of the initial Grace CD and in the bonus CD featuring gems like his rendition of Hank Williams' "Lost Highway", a hilarious and delirious rendition of "Screamin'" Jay Hawkins' "Alligator Wine" and on the best song of the bonus disc, "Forget Her", a song which was originally going to be on Grace in place of "So Real". Here, we get to listen to both, and more.
The bonus CD doesn't match the quality of Grace, but as far as an epilogue on Jeff's life, it surpasses Sketches and even the Sin-e Legacy Edition, for taking Jeff at his least commercial and maintaining that "I can't stop listening to him" quality throughout.
It may be a little pricey, but it's worth seeking out.