"Lover, You Should've Come Over" is a song by American singer-songwriter Jeff Buckley. It is the seventh track on his only studio album Grace, which was released on August 23, 1994, by Columbia Records.
Music and lyrics
Musically, "Lover, You Should've Come Over" is a folk-pop[1] and soulballad.[2] The song has a length of 6:43,[3] and is composed in 6 8 time and the key of D major. It moves at a tempo of 120 beats per minute, and Buckley's vocal range spans more than two octaves, from B3 to D6.[4] The song begins with an "ethereal, droning"[5]harmonium passage.[6]
Inspired by the ending of the relationship between Buckley and Rebecca Moore,[7] the lyrics concern the despondency of a young man growing older, finding that his actions represent a perspective he feels that he should have outgrown.[2] Biographer and critic David Browne describes the lyrics as "confused and confusing" and the music as "a languid beauty".[7]
Release
On August 23, 2019–the 25th anniversary of the release of Grace–Columbia/Legacy Recordings published unreleased footage of Buckley performing the song on February 19, 1994, at Middle East in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[8][9]
Cover versions
The song was covered by the English jazz pianist songwriter Jamie Cullum on his 2003 album Twentysomething. It has also been covered live by Australian singer-songwriter Matt Corby, English rock band Nothing But Thieves, and American singer-songwriter John Mayer, who named it the best song of all time in a 2003 interview with Rolling Stone's Austin Scaggs.[10] The song was also featured in the third episode of the ABC series FlashForward titled "137 Sekunden". The song was covered by Natalie Maines on her 2013 solo album Mother, with NPR's Ann Powers calling it "the sort of careening soul-metal epic that few vocalists even dare to attempt".[11][12] American singer Nikka Costa included a version of the song on her 2017 album Underneath and in Between. In 2021, Joey Landreth (of The Bros. Landreth) released his cover version.
Reception
Legacy
In 2019, Paste's Steven Edelstone ranked "Lover, You Should've Come Over" as number one on his list of "The 10 Best Jeff Buckley Songs". Edelstone deemed the song "lyrical perfection" and its bridge an "all-timer": "It's never over, my kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder / It's never over, all my riches for her smiles when I slept so soft against her / It's never over, all my blood for the sweetness of her laughter / It's never over, she's the tear that hangs inside my soul forever."[13] Arun Starkey of Far Out magazine described the song's harmonium intro as "one of the most moving musical moves ever put to wax."[5] Jacob Nierenberg of Consequence of Sound wrote that the song served as a "[reminder] that Buckley was making some of the most unique and unabashedly beautiful music of the 90s."[14]
^Guibert, M.; Browne, D. (2019). Jeff Buckley: His Own Voice. Hachette Books. p. 125. ISBN978-0-306-92167-4. Retrieved October 10, 2023. After he signed with Columbia in the fall of 1992, Jeff treated himself to a few pieces of gear—a new acoustic guitar, a small amp, and, seen here, a used harmonium. A portable keyboard operated by way of a pump that pushes air into it, the harmonium is prevalent in Qawwali, the South Asian devotional music that made such an impression on Jeff when he first came to New York. Part of Jeff's devotion to Qawwali involved learning how to play the instrument, which can be heard on the introduction of "Lover, You Should've Come Over (as well as on a cover of Van Morrison's "Madame George" cut during his 1993 session with producer Steve Addabbo). He also purchased language tapes to properly learn Urdu. Jeff could be seen walking around New York with this harmonium under his arm, wrapped in a blanket.
