FEATURE:
The Digital Mixtape
PHOTO CREDIT: Mikio Ariga
Jeff Buckley’s Grace at Thirty: The Artists He Inspired
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ON 23rd August…
we celebrate thirty years of one of the all-time best debut albums. One of the best albums ever. Grace from Jeff Buckley. Although it got some mixed reactions upon its release in 1994, in years since, it has been recognised as a masterpiece. Fitting into a scene in 1994 where nothing like this existed, critics did not know what to make of it. There was so much buzz around Jeff Buckley prior to release. Perhaps critics expecting something different. If it did not connect with the media as it should in 1994, now, we see Grace as a classic. We sadly lost Jeff Buckley in 1997 at the age of thirty. He recorded other songs and was in the process of recording his second album before he died. It means what he left us was this one album. Though we remember and play the songs from Grace, I think one of the most profound and obvious impacts of the album is the artists it influenced. Think about those who have cited it and Jeff Buckley as an influence. So many artists through the years. I wanted to mark the upcoming thirtieth anniversary of Grace with a playlist featuring songs from artists who have definitely been inspired by Grace. You can either hear it in their music, or they have mentioned Jeff Buckley as someone important to them. It will be bittersweet marking thirty years of Grace on 23rd August. It is clear that Jeff Buckley’s 1994 debut album is…
A thing of rare beauty.