I admit it...I do not possess as much knowledge on music as I wish I did. I owned "Hanging Tough" by the New Kids on the Block once upon a time and I even knew all the words to "Ice Ice Baby". However, bare with me because as I have grown into a mature, responsible adult, my music pallet has widened and I have discovered layers upon layers of musical taste that I never knew (or admitted) existed.

With that being said, I own five albums (technically they are CD's, but....that's not important) that I feel every music lover should own. Most of these albums do not contain songs that you will find on your favorite radio station. Unless, of course, you listen to public radio. If that's the case, then you probably will agree with my album choices.

Jeff Buckley - "Grace"

This album was released in 1994 on Columbia records and it didn't make it's way into my life, sadly, until 2004. I had been told several times that this CD would make me cry, but felt confident that I'd be able to hold it together for the duration of CD. It was night time and I had put headphones on so that I'd be able to hear every single note, word and emotion that was put into each and every song. By the end of the first track, Mojo Pin, I was in tears. Never had I heard such emotion in a song. Every chord and note seems to pull at your heart, dragging out every ounce of empathy and sensitivity you may contain within. I continued to listen based on how impressed I was with just the first song. That's when I heard Lilac Wine. With it's a cappella intro and it's slow, lackadaisical music background throughout the rest of the tune, you can easily close your eyes and envision the images Jeff is painting for you.

There is a cover of Leonard Cohan's Halleljuah that has additional lyrics, and to me, really makes the listener enjoy the song more because of lyrical content rather then the music itself.

The fifth track, So Real, actually wasn't going to make it onto the album. That place was originally meant for Forget Her, which ended up coming out on a single at a later date. According to rumors, Jeff felt that Forget Her was too personal and too revealing, so he opted to replace it with So Real instead. I love both songs, but I feel that So Real made more sense on this album. It seemed to flow with the emotional content seemingly well and it just so happens to be my favorite track on the entire CD. With lines such as, "And I never stepped on the cracks 'cause I thought I'd hurt my mother/And I couldn't awake from the nightmare/It'd suck me in and pull me under/Oh, that was so real", I was immediately hooked.

And just so no one can say that I don't know my obvious music history, yes, Tim Buckley is his father.