Judging only by his earlier, bare-bones indie-label albums, it seemed highly unlikely that Elliott Smith would turn into the ambitious arranger and studio craftsman of his lushly textured Dreamworks debut, XO. A big part of that shift, of course, was the fact that Smith had major-label finances and equipment to work with for the first time; this allowed him to fuse his melancholy, slightly punky folk with the rich sonics of pop artists like the Beatles and Beach Boys. Smith continues in that direction for the follow-up, Figure 8, an even more sonically detailed effort laden with orchestrations and inventive production touches. With a couple of exceptions, the sound of Smith's melancholy has largely shifted from edgy to sighingly graceful, although his lyrics are as dark as ever. Even if the subject matter stays in familiar territory, though, the backing tracks are another matter -- a gorgeous, sweeping kaleidoscope of layered instruments and sonic textures. Smith fleshes his songs out with assurance and imagination, and that newfound sense of mastery is ultimately the record's real emphasis; there's seemingly a subtle new wrinkle to the sound of every track, and yet it's all easily recognizable as trademark Smith. Even if it is a very impressive statement overall, Figure 8 isn't quite the masterpiece it wants to be -- there's something about the pacing that just makes the record feel long (at over 52 minutes, it is the longest album in Smith's catalog), and it can sometimes float away from the listener's consciousness. Perhaps it's that Smith's songwriting does slip on occasion here, which means that those weaker tracks sink under the weight of arrangements they aren't equipped to support. Still, most of the songs do reveal their strengths with repeated plays, and it's worth the price of a few nondescript items to reap the rewards of the vast majority. Fans who miss the intimacy of his Kill Rock Stars records won't find much to rejoice about here, but overall, Figure 8 comes tantalizingly close to establishing Elliott Smith as the consummate pop craftsman he's bidding to become.
What could be worthy of an inaugural post? In the spirit of this great webspace called mog, I would say a recommendation is in order. This is one Elliott Smith track that's particularly resonated with me. It's not just the addictive melody, or the intricate finger picking, or the subtle voice. That was just the beginning. It was that, after more listens, I began to feel as if I was inside someo...
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For all of us artist-types, here's a link where you can create your own Jackson Pollack look-a-like ... every time you click on your mouse the "paint" changes color. Have at it, mogs!http://www.jacksonpollock.org/
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Today marks the fifth anniversary of the untimely death of singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. He died nuder mysterious circumstances but his death was ruled a suicide. Many say his girlfriend, Jennifer Chiba, who found the body; is responsible for his death. She found him with a knife in his chest and called 911 after she discovered the body. At the time of his death he was working on his sixth...
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I'm sitting in the warm winter sun with a delicious hot chocolate and Elliott Smith stuck in my head, observing my cats. Phoebus, our Russian blue, looks somewhat like this but with white feet:He lives inside except for a couple of hours each day or so, doing very catty things, like falling gracefully off chairs or by contrast running full pelt halfway up the wall then hiding in the cupboard, ...
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I miss Elliott Smith. I heard 'Memory Lane' just after he passed away. I didn't even know he was gone for at least a year after that. And though I've only got this one album I love it so much. It's downright honest music with no pretence or ego attached. The first thing I thought after I heard it was 'John Lennon'. Granted that's probably just because of the overdubs throughout the whole ...
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I dreamed that I lived in my mom and dad's house, but they weren't there. For some reason Eliott Smith was hanging around, but I never could find him, I had just heard he was there. He kept finding odd objects in my backyard and leaving them in the house for me. He left me a really old TV remote, a tiny, functioning gun, and some other strange pieces on the kitchen table. I went down in the...
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so there was a girl. and i liked her. and i was single. and i found out she like elliott smith. i went out and bought some elliott smith. it was totally not was i was into at the time, but i was determined, so i listened and learned and bought more and now, well, let's just say i have something to thank that girl for.
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What could be worthy of an inaugural post? In the spirit of this great webspace called mog, I would say a recommendation is in order. This is one Elliott Smith track that's particularly resonated with me. It's not just the addictive melody, or the intricate finger picking, or the subtle voice. That was just the beginning. It was that, after more listens, I began to feel as if I was inside someo...
More >
While strolling around my local Target the other day something caught my attention, it was the Christmas music stand. So I saunter on over to give it a look, they had James Taylor’s Christmas album, the new Sarah Mclachlan, a compilation of great holiday songs, and there it was an Ali Lohan (little sister of Lindsay)album. After seeing this I was on the edge of a meltdown. Over the past few yea.
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For ramblings on how I came to compile this list go here. And for commentary on previous selections: [#50-46] [#45-41] [#40-36]35. Ys - Joanna Newsom (2006)I get an amazing number of hits to my site from people googling the phrase "I Hate Joanna Newsom", simply because the word 'hate' is in the title of this here blog, and I've talked about Ms Newsom on a few occasions. Of course, they're usual...
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 "Figure 8")
