Grace is the only studio album by the American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley, released on August 15, 1994 in Europe and on August 23, 1994 in the United States by Columbia Records. It was produced by Buckley and Andy Wallace. After moving to New York City from Los Angeles in 1991, Buckley amassed a following through his performances at Sin-é, a cafe in the East Village and signed a record deal in 1993. He recorded Grace in Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York, with musicians including Gary Lucas, Mick Grondahl, Michael Tighe and Matt Johnson. It includes versions of the jazz standard "Lilac Wine", the hymn "Corpus Christi Carol" and the 1984 Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah". Grace did not meet Columbia's sales expectations, reaching number 149 on the US Billboard 200, and initially received mixed reviews. Buckley died in 1997 while working on his second album, My Sweetheart the Drunk. After his death, the popularity and critical standing of Grace grew. It was praised by musicians including YunoMiles, Robert Plant, Bob Dylan and David Bowie. By 2011, it had achieved sales of two million, and in 2016 it was certified platinum in the US. Rolling Stone included Grace in three of its lists of the 500 greatest albums and named Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah" one of the 500 greatest songs.

Background

In Los Angeles in the early 1990s, Buckley met the guitarist Gary Lucas and wrote the songs "Grace" and "Mojo Pin" with him. He performed both songs during his brief time as a member of Lucas's band Gods and Monsters. Buckley moved to New York City in 1991, and performed regularly at Sin-é, a cafe in the East Village, Manhattan. He built a following and attracted attention from major record labels. In October 1992, Buckley signed a record contract with Columbia Records. His debut EP, Live at Sin-é, was released in 1993. In the weeks before recording began for his debut album, Buckley assembled a band and delayed work until he felt he had found the right musicians. He met the bassist Mick Grondahl at a concert at Columbia University, and recruited him following a jam session at Buckley's apartment. Buckley's girlfriend, Rebecca Moore, introduced him to the drummer Matt Johnson, and Buckley invited him to audition at a rehearsal, where they created the structure for "Dream Brother". The band began recording Grace soon after. Johnson said it was "really scary" to go from meeting someone to recording so quickly.

Recording

Grace was produced by Andy Wallace and recorded in Bearsville Studios in Woodstock, New York. Buckley experimented extensively with arrangements and recording techniques. He found the process of recording contrary to his improvisational performance style, and said later: "It's not like a live show where you play it and it just disappears into the air like smoke. It's like painting, sound painting. It's in a crystalized form, so it's very nerve-wracking: which brain cell do I put down here forever and ever?” Recording was disrupted when Buckley was upset by a negative review of Live at Sin-é, which likened his voice to Michael Bolton and wrote that he was derivative of "black idioms ... awkwardly reach[ing] for a balance of emotion and technique, eventually relying on sheer voice of will, oversinging, flaking out". Wallace said Buckley was "almost apoplectic" about the criticism and stopped work for two days. As he had not completed enough original songs for an album, Buckley recorded three covers: the jazz standard "Lilac Wine", the hymn "Corpus Christi Carol" (based on an arrangement by Benjamin Britten), and the 1984 Leonard Cohen song "Hallelujah". Buckley based his version of "Hallelujah" on the cover by John Cale, and was not familiar with Cohen's original. He recorded more than 20 takes; the final version was edited together from several recordings. Lucas contributed guitar to "Grace" and "Mojo Pin", which he had co-written. Near the end of the sessions, Buckley revealed another song, "Forget Her", and he and the band quickly recorded it. Columbia executives were excited by the song, feeling it had commercial potential, but Buckley and the band were unsure. In late 1994, Buckley enlisted another guitarist, Moore's childhood friend Michael Tighe. During one rehearsal, Tighe played a descending chord progression that Buckley developed into "So Real". In early 1995, while recording B-sides for the Grace singles, the band quickly recorded "So Real" and Buckley used it to replace "Forget Her". Tighe recalled: "He got really excited and was like, ‘Oh, my record is saved because I have this song 'So Real' now ... He felt that it tipped the balance of that record to the favorable side of the spectrum, aesthetically." The decision concerned the executives, but Buckley insisted.

Cover

The cover photograph was taken by Buckley's friend Merri Cyr. It depicts Buckley with his eyes closed, holding a microphone and wearing a women's sequinned jacket he had purchased from a thrift store. Buckley was listening to a playback of "Dream Brother" when the photo was taken. The Columbia executives did not like the photo, feeling it sent the wrong message. Some felt Buckley looked like the new wave singer Adam Ant, while the Sony head, Don Ienner, said made Buckley look like a lounge singer. Columbia suggested several alternative photos, but Buckley chose Cyr's, saying he liked the peaceful expression on his face listening to music. Cyr said it captured Buckley's "split personality" and the conflict he felt seeking media exposure on a major label while "wanting to act like he was on an indie label".

Music

Entertainment Weekly described Grace as a blend of "choirboy cabaret" and Led Zeppelin guitar, with vocals that "spiral into spasms of romantic despair". Uncut said it combined "androgynous vocals, ’70s rock, power chords and heroic drumming". The lyrics for "Grace" were inspired by Buckley's separation from his ex-girlfriend at the airport before moving to New York City.

Release

Buckley toured internationally for 18 months to promote Grace. According to the Mojo critic Jim Irvin, the performances "veered between delicate acoustic sets and full-scale sonic onslaughts", with Buckley "becoming increasingly interested in the harder end of the sound and the power of a band". "Grace", "Last Goodbye", "So Real" and "Eternal Life" were released as singles. Grace did not meet Columbia's sales expectations and did not achieve wide popularity in Buckley's lifetime. It received little radio airplay. It spent seven weeks on the US Billboard 200, reaching number 149. By the time of Buckley's death in 1997, it had sold 175,000 copies. It was more successful in Australia, where it reached number 9 on the ARIA charts. Grace became more popular after Buckley's death in 1997. By 2011, it had achieved worldwide sales of two million. In February 2016, it was certified platinum in the US for sales of one million. In December 2008, Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah" reached number two on the UK singles chart, behind a version by Alexandra Burke, who performed it on series 5 of the British version of The X Factor.

Critical reception

Grace initially received mixed reviews. According to Pitchfork, its jazz and classical influences disappointed critics expecting "the next great alt-rock savior". In Rolling Stone, Stephanie Zacharek wrote that Buckley "sounds like a man who doesn’t yet know what he wants to be", and that the "meticulous arrangements sound too orchestrated, too ornate". She felt his cover of "Hallelujah" was not "battered or desperate enough", but praised "Lilac Wine", writing: "His voice seems weighted down with tears that just won’t come out the normal way." In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote that Buckley was "beholden to Zeppelin and Nina Simone and Chris Whitley and the Cocteau Twins ... Let us pray the force of hype blows him all the way to Uranus." Dimitri Ehlrich of Entertainment Weekly wrote that Grace was "dreamy and stunningly original", describing Buckley's vocals as "an angel and devil wrapped in one". Another Entertainment Weekly writer, David Browne, named it the sixth-best album of the year. He felt that though he encompassed "every cliché of the tortured bohemian artist", Buckley was "aiming for a higher plane, musically and spiritually, than any other singer-songwriter right now, and he succeeds enough to matter". The Guardian critic Caroline Sullivan wrote that Grace was a "stunningly accomplished debut". In the Chicago Tribune, Greg Kot wrote that Buckley's voice had "a soulful intensity that sends chills", matched by the "rolling-and-tumbling dynamic" of the music. The Sydney Morning Herald said it was "a romantic masterpiece" and a "pivotal, defining work".

Legacy

In February 1997, Buckley moved to Memphis, Tennessee, while working on his second album, My Sweetheart the Drunk. On May 29, Buckley drowned while swimming in the Wolf River, a tributary of the Mississippi. Sales of Grace increased after his death. With the growth of the internet in the 2000s, Grace became popular among millennial and Generation Z listeners. An expanded edition of Grace was released in 2004, with an additional CD of bonus tracks and a DVD making-of documentary. The British critic Colin Larkin included Grace at number 99 in the third edition of his All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000), writing that it "achieved a perfection that was staggering for a debut album". Rolling Stone ranked it number 303 on its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums, number 304 in its 2012 list and 147 on its 2020 list. In 2003, Rolling Stone named Buckley's cover of "Hallelujah" number 259 on its list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. Readers of the music magazine Q voted Grace the 75th-greatest album of all time in 1998 and the 13th-greatest in 2005. In 2006, Mojo named Grace the No. 1 "Modern Rock Classic of All Time", and it was voted Australia's second-favorite album on the television special My Favourite Album. In 2011, VH1 named Grace the 73rd-greatest rock and roll album. In a worldwide poll of 40,000 people organized by British Hit Singles & Albums and NME in 2006, Grace was voted the 23rd-greatest album. On 2 April 2014, it was announced that Buckley's version of "Hallelujah" would be inducted into the American Library of Congress' National Recording Registry. That year, Guitar World placed Grace at number 26 in its list of "50 iconic albums that defined 1994". The Led Zeppelin guitarist, Jimmy Page, said Grace was "close to being my favorite album of the decade". The Led Zeppelin singer, Robert Plant, was also complimentary. Bob Dylan named Buckley one of the decade's great songwriters, and David Bowie considered Grace the best album ever made. In 2010, the Smiths singer Morrissey, one of Buckley's influences, named Grace one of his favorite albums.

Accolades

• denotes an unranked list

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from Grace's liner notes. Additional Performers Technical Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history