november playlist: jeff buckley

I haven’t really listened to Jeff Buckley in ages. I admit that I deliberately avoid him. Not because I dislike him, because that is not the case. It’s more that it just seems like something that must be done while sitting in the dark after having a bit too much to drink, alone with the knowledge that the only person in the world who matters isn’t going to call. It’s the perfect soundtrack for that sort of thing, but I don’t really do that anymore.

Anyway, yeah. Who hasn’t covered Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” by now? (When I looked up this video on Youtube, I saw that there’s a Bon Jovi version. No, really.) I actually was familiar with the Jeff Buckley version before I heard Leonard Cohen sing it, so it is probably at least partly for that reason that to me, the Jeff Buckley version is the correct one. (The other reason being that the Jeff Buckley version is like… holy fuck amazing.)

I don’t think there’s any arguing that it’s a beautiful song, but in a way, it’s almost too bad, what’s happened to “Hallelujah” over the past several years. It’s like the go-to tune for television dramas when they have that montage set to music near the end of the episode where they start wrapping things up. And while television dramas need their montages, oh my god, do they ever, I often find myself wondering if the people who chose “Hallelujah” as the song for their montages if they’ve ever actually listened to it or if they think it’s good because it’s slow and it says “Hallelujah” a lot. I don’t know. Sometimes when I hear it in that context I feel like the song has gone slumming. But that’s probably just me being a snob. I’m like that sometimes.