At the same time however he was creating his most ambitious work for a planned double album, From a Basement on a Hill.
There are numerous accounts of the troubles Smith faced the last three years of his life.
What if she thinks so but just didn’t say so? The street’s wet you can tell by the sound of the cars In just a few couplets Elliott paints not just a picture of a bar at closing time, but also a portrait of a man’s inner turmoil from nagging memories of a love gone sour:
This stark approach defines standouts such as “Clementine,” which offset haunting harmony vocals and dissonant licks with a rich acoustic guitar sound and a sense of perfect symmetry. To the contrary Elliott Smith is memorable for its simple recording approach, mostly acoustic guitar and double tracked vocals. For this reason many fans think of his eponymous second album as his real debut – as it’s the first record he made as “an album.” That doesn’t mean the production differed much though. Winding the lyrics into a hallucinatory section that emotionally retraces the pains of his childhood:Įlliott’s first solo album was technically Roman Candle, a collection of demos recorded in his girlfriend’s basement that unexpectedly became a set for public release after Smith relented to label requests (nearly half the tracks didn’t even have titles and were labeled “No Name #1,” “No Name #2” etc). Recorded as a demo with the hopes of perhaps landing him a solo deal for a 7″ (his pre-fame group Heatmiser was still his main musical focus), Elliott announced his break from the band with an intense profile of his abusive step father. Elliott initially came across as the singer-songwriter branch of that possibility, and never more so than on this track. Sure, the term itself was already played out but there was a sensibility to that era of songwriting that – radio friendly unit shifters aside – held promise to develop in unforeseen directions. Keep in mind that when this was written Kurt Cobain was still alive and the future of “grunge” was wide-open. In remembrance, here’s an overview of some of his most overlooked songs: Roman Candle Steven Paul “Elliott” Smith died ten years ago today. I’ll put it on and my mind just starts thinking of things that I don’t want to think about while listening to a record I love.” The sad thing is I can’t listen to it anymore, it’s too hard. “ I always said Either/Or is one of my top 10 albums of all time.
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