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anjanette 's review for:
This is an interesting, if somewhat obsessive and occasionally repetitive, story of the song 'Hallelujah,' its history, and critiques of a multitude of permutations. It's really such a beautiful song, but it seems remarkable that a song could have a history long enough to write a book about, and honestly, I feel this book could have been shorter. The actual bits about Cohen, Buckley, and the rise of the song are great. However, the author seems to feel that just isn't enough and either has to talk to practically every artist who has ever recorded the song, or quote some interview where they talked about their choices in recording the song. For a song that has so many different variations, the artists tend to say pretty much the same thing. Over and over again. Where Light really shines is when he analyzes the poetry of the lyrics and critiques the individual performances. I do encourage anyone who reads the book to search out some of the performances he writes about, but be warned. A little goes a long way. One of the unfortunate side effects is that you will not want to hear this song again any time in the near future. Light talks about the song's overkill in pop culture. Ironically he adds to it.