By John Batanchiev

What a voice. That’s one of the first things people talk about when the name Jeff Buckley is mentioned. The late Buckley was a rock singer of the 1990s, who was hailed as one of rock’s up and coming stars before he died.

1994 was an important year for American music. Buckley’s Grace was a stand-out album in a year that saw the decline of grunge rock. Hip-hop was in the middle of an evolution and pop music was escaping from the hold of the ’80s. It made sense that Grace was well-received. It combined the strengths of the alternative era with a reminiscence of the 1970s singer-songwriter sensitivity and romance that was lacking in pop music.

Grace is an album with power and sensitivity-from the opening notes of Buckley’s voice to the ending ripping guitar chords of “Dream Brother.” It’s unique mix that represents a musician able have diverse musical ability. Buckley’s voice at times sounds like a angel singing to you in heaven. No truer is that statement on songs like “Corpus Christi” and “Eternal Light.”

Though Buckley’s voice gets people talking, it’s the band that backs him who does an amazing job complimenting his diverse voice with a diverse array of moods and colors. “Eternal Light” and “Corpus Christi Carol” are the most drastic of songs on the album. “Eternal Light” takes on a heavy rock guitar sound with Buckley delivering a Led Zeppelin like performance. “Corpus Christi Carol” is more like a religious experience.

The guitar work that opens up “Last Goodbye” is a great opening for an amazing song, whose riff catapults the listener into Buckley’s turmoil with a woman he loves. Buckley’s lyrics are fascinating. On “Last Goodbye,” Buckley sings “Did you say ‘no, this can’t happen to me,’ / And did you rush to the phone to call / Was there a voice unkind in the back of your mind / Saying maybe you didn’t know him at all.” Unfortunately, Buckley passed before he could be fully acknowledged by the masses for his ability, but his status has grown after unfinished music was released that added to the legend of Buckley. Grace is a romantic’s album, filled with songs of love, redemption loss, death and faith. Grace was an album that impacted many future singer songwriters of the 1990s who filled in where Buckley left off.