tspelczechquer 's review for:

The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley, and the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" by Alan Light

4.0

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I remember hearing Jeff Buckley's "Grace" when it first came out in 1994. The first few tracks blew me away, then "Hallelujah" knocked me over and left me speechless. Like most everyone else, I didn't know Leonard Cohen wrote it. In nearly 20 years (30 if you count Cohen's original), "Hallelujah" has worked its way into pop culture via "Shrek", American Idol, and countless covers.

Alan Light's The Holy or the Broken, reads a bit like Cohen's original lyrics to this amazing song: Light bounces from point to point, sometimes without a clear direction, but ultimately succeeds in capturing the essence of one of the most amazing songs of our lifetime.