Grace : Around The World ［CD+DVD］

Rolling Stone (5/13/99, p.55) - Included in Rolling Stone's "Essential Recordings of the 90's." Rolling Stone (11/3/94, p.101) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...Buckley's got huge ears and an even bigger record collection: He jumbles jazz, R&B, blues and rock references with such apparent nonchalance that he can seem like a showoff..." Spin (10/94, p.111) - Highly Recommended - "...If Buckley continues to evolve in the direction that GRACE indicates, only good things can result..." Entertainment Weekly (Spring 2000, p.166) - Ranked #3 in EW's "Top 10 albums of the '90s" Entertainment Weekly (8/26-9/2/94, p.112) - "...a dreamy and original set of songs....Too good to be true..." - Rating: A+ Q (10/01, p.86) - Ranked #14 in Q's "Best 50 Albums of Q's Lifetime" Q (12/99, p.82) - Included in Q Magazine's "90 Best Albums Of The 1990s." Q (9/94, p.98) - 4 Stars (out of 5) - "...This is no pretty folk LP, it's a powerful album of unlocked emotions, poetry and drama, where ringing guitar and driving drums mix with swaying spartan tenderness and almost awkward rhythmic changes..." Q (p.130) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[He] hit his stride via covers and the barest outlines of songs. And LEGACY is padded out with most of this difficult journey." Uncut (p.124) - 5 stars out of 5 - "Ten years on and remastered, GRACE sounds more swoopingly lyrical and breathlessly eclectic than ever." Melody Maker (8/13/94, p.34) - Recommended - "...It's a voice that leaps tall buildings in a single bound, smells of sex and Chanel and never stoops to showboating..." Musician (11/94, pp.87-88) - "...a faultless expansion of Buckley's solo shows in New York clubs..." Village Voice (2/28/95) - Ranked #23 in the Village Voice's 1994 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. Mojo (Publisher) (p.69) - Ranked #1 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "There is no place yet for the places he and his voice can go." Mojo (Publisher) (1/95, p.50) - Included in Mojo's "25 Best Albums of 1994" - "...Audacious, adventurous, often tear-jerkingly beautiful and spiritually rousing, GRACE has it all..." Mojo (Publisher) (p.116) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[M]arvel at the awesome original album, still brimming with the sound of a soul trying to have its say while there's still a chance." New York Times (Publisher) (1/5/95, p.C15) - Included on Stephen Holden's list of the Top 10 Albums Of '94 - "...The year's most impressive solo debut." NME (Magazine) (12/24/94, p.22) - Ranked #21 in NME's list of the "Top 50 Albums Of 1994." NME (Magazine) (8/12/00, p.28) - Ranked #12 in The NME "Top 30 Heartbreak Albums". NME (Magazine) (8/13/94, p.44) - 9 (out of 10) - "...Just for once, the child of a star looks capable of transcending the family legacy. From here on in, the sky's the limit..."

Jeff Buckley didn't leave behind an extensive body of work: a live EP; his debut LP, Grace; a handful of B-sides; plus an unfinished album. After his untimely death, all this material has seen reissue in some form -- a deluxe version of the debut, a posthumous collection of the incomplete sophomore album -- which meant the only things still left in the vault were more live performances, specifically the ones he gave for TV stations across the globe. Sony/Legacy's 2009 set Grace Around the World rounds up the bulk of these performances and offers them as a CD/DVD set, with the CD offering 12 of the 14 performances on the DVD (a "Last Goodbye" from a January 1995 session for MTV's 120 Minutes and "Vancouver" from the U.K. MTV's Most Wanted from two months later being the tunes left behind). The DVD also has a music video of "Hallelujah," a VH1 Behind the Scenes "Star Tours," and an interview, making this a clearinghouse of most of the existing broadcast footage of Buckley from the first months of 1995, something that by its very definition is designed for diehards, the diehards who will also appreciate the addition of the very good hourlong documentary Amazing Grace on the one-CD/two-DVD deluxe version of Grace Around the World, especially as it focuses on his music more than his myth. The same could be said of this set at large: it captures him as a working musician, pushing his first album hard, trying to get his name and music known, not caring about anything outside of the moment -- all things that offer a potent, stirring reminder of Buckley's power and grace. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine