Hallelujah (track)
by Jeff Buckley

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From llibnanoon 06/02/2020 16:59 | #252741

Masterpiece!

One of the best most beautiful songs of all time done really well by Buckley

From CharlieBarley 02/26/2019 02:34 | #232638

Phenomenal. If I were a British celebrity it would be one of my Desert Island discs. Unfortunately I'm just an ordinary Joe so I'll have to be content with it being a favourite song.

From VictorVale 12/16/2018 12:11 | #227263

Grande versão dessa música espetacular. O melhor dos anos 90, tristeza, belos riffs, voz longa! Incrível.

The best version of what might be the greatest song ever written, followed closely by John Cale's. Absolutely breathtaking.

From 9999 09/16/2015 16:35 | #149879

This would probably be my favourite cover of all time if it weren't for Jimi's "All along the watchtower". Gorgeous.

Sublime

From soundguardian 05/29/2013 19:26 | #77596

Basing this song on Leonard Cohen's exceptional composition, and yet manipulating it in a unique way (with carefully decided tone and instrumentation), Grace recording artist Jeff Buckley both personalized "Hallelujah" further and made it more accessible and famous. It's no wonder that this version is now the standard inspiration for current recording artists to developed their own covers, respectively.

My interpretation focuses less on the underlying meaning of the song (as Leondard Cohen composed and wrote the lyrics of the original a decade earlier), and more on the arrangement and Buckley's execution. From that first moment, a heaving breath (of nerves? of despondency? exasperation?), to the huge climax and that long maintained syllable (followed by a very suspenseful silence), Buckley successfully takes us, the listeners, on a very emotional experience.

While the original Cohen version was a muttering of his beautiful lyricism, Buckley surges new life - some humanity - through the veins of "Hallelujah". Cohen's had been very monotone and at times underwhelming. Then Buckley's version was sweeping with restrained, but intense, impassioned dynamics that would culminate when appropriate and settle when necessary to invoke the intended emotional response from a listener. All of this would match with the instantaneous message of the lyrics - when the narrator senses beauty, glory, or nostalgia, we feel it; when the narrator feels grief, or feels wounded / exposed, or is disillusioned, Buckley puts sadness into his voice, and we feel that, too.

No doubt this is the greatest rendering of one of the most-covered, most influential, and most beloved songs of the last thirty years. It's a shame that Jeff Buckley's legacy is limited to such a small - but brilliant - repertoire. Luckily, after his death, live and compilation records were published and distributed posthumously.

Phenomenal version.