Latest review: Jeff Buckley

Jeff Buckley
So Real
Genre: Rock
Highlight: I Know It's Over

READERS who haven't been living under a rock for the past month can't have failed to notice how Hallelujah, the trademark track of this tragic artist, has dominated the singles charts.

Jeff Buckley may not have been the creative genius behind the first track to hold a Christmas number one and two simultaneously, and the jury's still out on whether X Factor winner Alexandra Burke did it any justice, but it does mean this album's been given a welcome boost into 2009.

So Real is one of those Ronseal albums which really is what it says on the tin; a watery-eyed riposte to everything the glossy pop perfect world of The X Factor stands for. Hallelujah, originally penned by Leonard Cohen, may have kept Buckley in the public eye enough to posthumously bag him a festive number two but anyone expecting a pop album is in for a shock.

Buckley, as the commercials plugging this compilation point out, was tragically killed in a swimming accident over a decade ago, and So Real seems to subtly reflect this on its melancholic trip through the singer's finer works. Although some tracks, like Eternal Life, do slip into almost grungy and rather dated homages to other Nineties rockers, this isn't an album to cheer you up.

There's no doubting his songwriting flair, and almost all of the tracks have dated far better than anything Lenny Kravitz or Nick Cave, his solo artist contemporaries, have done. Even the eclectic choice of cover versions visiting artists as diverse as The Smiths and Edith Piaf, and serve his searing vocal style brilliantly.

Yet this album - and probably Buckley's legacy - is always going to be dominated by Hallelujah, which is a shame. So Real isn't going to be everyone's taste but as an introduction to the late singer it's going to be hard to beat.

Album provided by Tesco, Llandudno Junction