66. Jeff Buckley, Grace (Columbia, 1994)
He could be pretentious, melodramatic, and just a little full of himself. His death from drowning three years later all but ensured the mythical, legendary status of this, his only real album. Still, you can't deny that he was unique, talented, and at times, beguiling. His nearly seven minute take on Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is definitive--just his elastic, ethereal vocal and a reverb-heavy guitar expanding and stretching out Cohen's hymn until it achieves enlightenment. Other covers ("Lilac Wine", Britten's "Corpus Christi Carol") are also standouts, and after a few listens, some of his originals start to stand out, too: the tender, tortured "Lover, You Should've Come Over", the desperate, desire-drenched "So Real" and the closing "Dream Brother", an epitaph for both his famous, tragic father, and sadly, also himself.
67. Sheryl Crow, The Globe Sessions (A&M, 1998)
Now she seems content to conform to VH-1 rather than transcend it, lazily getting a hit out of a boring, soulless cover of what was once a crisp, cutting Cat Stevens song. When Clinton was in office, however, she was one of the most interesting, innovative Top 40 stars of the age. If her self-titled '96 album was an encouraging attempt to toughen and art up her image, this follow-up attempts a trickier balancing act: its radio-friendly rock exudes the wit and personality of Joni Mitchell at her most open and confessional. The upbeat yet honest "My Favorite Mistake" was the deserved hit, and the yearning, defiant "Anything But Down" should've been just as big. But apart from the calculated "There Goes The Neighborhood", everything coalesces like the classic rock albums Crow obviously loves. Bypass the later editions that added on her pointless cover of "Sweet Child of Mine" and search out those that conclude with a biting, lovably slapdash untitled bonus track about the then-timely presidential sex scandal.
He could be pretentious, melodramatic, and just a little full of himself. His death from drowning three years later all but ensured the mythical, legendary status of this, his only real album. Still, you can't deny that he was unique, talented, and at times, beguiling. His nearly seven minute take on Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is definitive--just his elastic, ethereal vocal and a reverb-heavy guitar expanding and stretching out Cohen's hymn until it achieves enlightenment. Other covers ("Lilac Wine", Britten's "Corpus Christi Carol") are also standouts, and after a few listens, some of his originals start to stand out, too: the tender, tortured "Lover, You Should've Come Over", the desperate, desire-drenched "So Real" and the closing "Dream Brother", an epitaph for both his famous, tragic father, and sadly, also himself.
67. Sheryl Crow, The Globe Sessions (A&M, 1998)
Now she seems content to conform to VH-1 rather than transcend it, lazily getting a hit out of a boring, soulless cover of what was once a crisp, cutting Cat Stevens song. When Clinton was in office, however, she was one of the most interesting, innovative Top 40 stars of the age. If her self-titled '96 album was an encouraging attempt to toughen and art up her image, this follow-up attempts a trickier balancing act: its radio-friendly rock exudes the wit and personality of Joni Mitchell at her most open and confessional. The upbeat yet honest "My Favorite Mistake" was the deserved hit, and the yearning, defiant "Anything But Down" should've been just as big. But apart from the calculated "There Goes The Neighborhood", everything coalesces like the classic rock albums Crow obviously loves. Bypass the later editions that added on her pointless cover of "Sweet Child of Mine" and search out those that conclude with a biting, lovably slapdash untitled bonus track about the then-timely presidential sex scandal.
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