Jeff Buckley
Live a l'Olympia

THE REVIEW

How can one talk about love or music? By listening to the heart, I believe, perhaps because only it knows all things. And it was precisely in the secret places of the heart that Buckley found himself, sweet and delicate, almost resigned.

The album starts and the atmosphere is unmistakable, the applause rises and Jeff awkwardly says "merci" before introducing "Lover, you should have come over", slow and pure, like a warm and rhythmic breath. The illusion and abandonment, which will follow the album to the last track, are laid bare immediately "baby I'm too young to hold on and too old to just break free and run...". Desperately human. And his voice, the passion, is desperately angelic. The tracklist features the author's best-known titles, from the power of "dream brother" to the scathing "Eternal life" and "Kick out the jams" (cover of the punk band MC5) degenerated by the insane vocal range of this artist's son.

But Jeff doesn't find his real outlet in the angry songs, as a careless and superficial listener might imagine. Because with anger you achieve nothing. The gently plucked notes of "Lilac wine" and the long-awaited "Grace" thus cradle the unreal silence of a stunned audience, the rustle of the music, sensations and dreams blend together, applause. The noise is a new and useful comfort. Jeff breaks the silence and plays with wise irony, playing the first chords of "Kashmir" (a beloved song by Led Zeppelin) and improvising with school-level French that thrills the Parisian audience. Then comes, softly, the sweet "Je n'en connais pas la fin", romantic and melancholic, Parisian anyway. In "Hallelujah" Buckley pants with every vibration of the heart, at first navigating his voice in falsetto and then wearily whispering "...well it's not a cry that you hear at night, it's not somebody who's the light, it's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah...".

The concert is over, applause, again. But it's not the end, the silence, the one created by words, is no more, but the silence of the heart is, the eternal guardian of magical memories. And it was only about love that Jeff Buckley sang, pure and real, the love for life.