Jeff Buckley
Grace

THE REVIEW

"He died young because the gods loved him too much"

(Fernando Pessoa)

 Once upon a time, there was a man who, on the stage of a smoky club, sang an old song, Satisfied Mind. It was the sweet farewell of a departing heart, the voice of a goodbye to the dearest friends, the serene hope of disappearing with the soul at peace. Once upon a time, there was a man who sang of oceans, deliriums, love affairs, and prayers. Once upon a time, there was a man who went out to sea. Many wrote that he was an angel.

 Grace begins like this, with an absence. She just left, with her black hair like tongues of coal. She, whom he had waited for his whole life, she whom he had always searched for, is now gone. "I won't cry for you, no, I don't want to know. [...] Memories ignite, the rhythms slow down, black beauty..." All around there is a rhythm that slowly builds, guitars in constant evidence, and that tense atmosphere sustains a voice. It is a voice. One of those things you hear and then never forget, not even in your dreams. "There is the moon begging to stay," and it is time for Grace, an epic flight song, from ancient legend. Easy to read it as a prayer of love and death, with the falling rain: "...I think my time has come." This album flows closely, at times it is even a sweet pain to hear it. Thinking of that final goodbye, with her who has given him "much more to keep on living, much more than you can think." And you can see them, there, embracing in a "last embrace," there is a wall that cannot be crossed, and a passionate kiss that does not want to be just consolation. "It's over," but outside you can still hear bells ringing, those sweet corners sprinkled with a light white veil a tense air, all electric guitars and edges, where it is so easy to fall. There, in a moment, on that cold and damp night, with a light that resembles the mist. A man walks, hypnotized by a strange delight. Thus begins Lilac Wine, distant memories, Nina Simone, Elkie Brooks, and now - again - a story resumes to fly like a serenade on the horizon, waiting to melt before this voice that possesses it and goes crazy for it: "I drink much more than I ought to drink, because it brings you back to me." It is love. And pain. Pure, without more peace, like that in So Real, the wind blowing invocations and he falls asleep in a nightmare. He loves her, but fears loving her, which is why the supports disappear and awaken in a song sung by moonlight, which begins with a sigh. Then, silence. Then, a guitar. Slow, slow. And the voice walks singing "All that I've learned from love is how to shoot someone who has disarmed you. It is not a cry you hear at night, nor someone who has seen the light." It is Hallelujah, as Leonard Cohen might have dreamed it would become one day. Prayers. Even Lover, Should've Come Over is a way to do it, watching that rain falling "on the funeral procession." An organ. Floating. Almost absolute. And everything, gently, on a journey: "She is the tear that will remain always suspended within my soul. Maybe I'm just too young to keep love from going wrong." Yet, again. That Corpus Christi Carol by Benjamin Britten, with the knight laid in bed and beside him a lady, alone with her tears. How to sing it, if not like this, with a guitar in the void and a voice made of air, dissolving in the expectation of distant abysses of fury. And there is "a red horizon, a blazing horizon" calling names and names in Eternal Life, storm of sounds and broken fantasies. It's no longer time to hate, just questions and doubts remain, and a goodbye kiss. It could only be a dream, then. A sleeping child, and "tears scattered all around the world." Everything sways, adjusts, appears, and then disappears. It is an eternal crescendo. "I am afraid, and I call your name: I adore your voice and your dance, I hear your words and understand your pain. Your head in your hands, your kisses on someone’s lips. Your eyes watching the earth, and the world spinning, eternally. You fall asleep in the sand..." And the ocean. Everywhere. The ocean. Once upon a time, there was a man who went out to sea. Many understood that he was an angel.