So out of Elliott's six official releases, I'm just curious what everyone has as their favorites. I've been on a big Smith kick lately, and am listening to his self title disc ALOT lately. I'm just curious what everyone thinks or would rank them. My awesome ranking of awesomeness would go as follows...

Elliott Smith>>From a Basement on the Hill>>XO>>Figure 8>>Either/Or>>Roman Candle

for me:

Either/Or = XO > Basement = Figure 8 > S/T > Roman Candle

A+
Either/Or
XO

A
Roman Candle
Figure 8

A-
From A Basement On A Hill
S/T

XO is my fave.

Torgo to thread.

Either/Or is so close to perfect. XO and From a Basement are terrific. But for me, Either/Or is way beyond those two.

either/or is at the top for me. i don't think anything he did was that bad. i didn't care for figure 8 too much, but it's still decent. thinking this over, i realized that i probably couldn't properly match half of his songs to the correct album. is that good or bad?

i used to feel that way, but lately XO has creeped up into Either/Or territory for me. i put it equal, but i still prefer Either/Or i think

there's just so many amazing songs on it, def Elliott's most "classic" record, and if i had to pick one to tell someone new to him to pick up, it'd be Either/Or then XO

XO is more dynamic and varied than Either/Or
, which has a more consistent feel.


People may complain that XO is too glossy and has lower lows, but those lows are relative and neglible...For me, the highs on XO make it my #1.

Elliott Smith is another artist I want to like a lot more than I actually do like. Could be the obvious Beatles references, could be the relentlesseness of the songs, I'm not sure. I'm no aficianado of his, but the record of his I like best is "From a Basement on the Hill". Pound for pound I'd just as soon put on a Ron Sexsmith disc.

earlier stuff isn't very Beatles-y at all, that started on XO and was most obvious on Figure 8

while i do like Ron Sexsmith, he doesn't even remotely compare to Elliott imo. Elliott is all about the lyrics, one of the best lyricists int he last 15 years, hands down.

me too! XO was the first album I ever got of his (won it in a contest at school, of all things) and Either/Or was the second one I bought. I remember driving around with those and trying to get people to listen to him...

Did anyone get to see him live? I always missed out...

really? i'm in it for the melodies, which i think are slightly stronger on XO

Either/Or is up there among my favorite albums ever.

Elliott's great because on a monthly basis, my favorite Elliott songs change. If you made me say my favorite Elliott song, right now I would say "Baby Britain". But months ago, I would have said "St. Ides Heaven".

Either/Or > S/T > XO > Basement > Figure 8 > Roman Candle

xo is by far my favourite album. i think it's perfect, except that it is slightly unbalanced (to me, the end of the album is waaaaaaaay stronger than the beginning) but, still, nonetheless really perfect. it's where he seemed to develop his lyrics to match the artistry and the complexity of the music itself. i love love love it. and if you've ever met me you probably know that as it may or may not be burned into my skin.

anyway. my love for all the albums rotate, depending on what i've been listening to. like, the past few weeks i've had basement in my discman (yes, i still have a discman) and have been fawning over yet again. but i am a HUGE fan of figure 8, just because i really prefer the band sound in general, though either/ or is also magnificent. it's hard to grade your favourite artists albums because there are parts you love so much.

i saw him live the year before he died. he was doing alot of small "surprise" shows around new york to preview new songs and just get back out there and dispell the rumours that he was killing himself slowly. well.


explain to me how that could possibly be a good thing?

Well - I saw him self-destruct live, forget the words to his songs, look extremely nervous/stoned/messed-up,get heckled, play parts of songs and frustrate an audience in L.A. about 5 years ago. I was stoned at the time, so I really thought I was exaggerating things in my mind. But other people there saw the same thing I did. It was really sad at the time and in retrospect, it's obviously even worse because of how the story ends. "PLAY BIGGEST LIE!" "No......." "PLAY CHRISTIAN BROTHERS" "I ...I can't remember that one...I can't play that now.." When a close friend broke the news to me that Elliott had died, I thought back to that performance and it really just made me feel completely heartbroken for Elliott. Poor bastard.

XO was also the first one i bought in '98, then bought Either/Or as well

i saw him live in Oct of '02 (similiar to aneg's deal), but the show was actually surprisingly quite good, but he definitely didn't look too great. he covered Car by Built To Spill, which is still one of my top 10 live music moments ever.

i had tickets to see him one time earlier, on the tour for Figure 8 w/ a band, but had something come up at the last minute. didn't think TOO much of it at the time, but now i'm definitely quite bummed.


his melodies are def fantastic, no doubt, but his lyrics were always what stood out to me the most i think.


ditto


i actually LOVE Figure 8 and the full band stuff as well, i go back and forth between which i prefer, the Figure 8 full band sound or Either/Or more solo stuff, really depends on the day. i thought Basement, while not a true album, was a great combination of solo + fuller arrangements.

Figure 8 has probably my favorite sounding Elliott Smith song in "Junk Bond Trader." The lyrics aren't as good as a lot of his stuff, but the sound behind that song is just so beautiful.



Was that when he was opening for Wilco by chance? I heard about that show and actually just read a book on Smith's life where they discuss that show and how he was just falling apart on stage, starting and then ending songs apruptly, not knowing lyrics, et cetera.

Speaking of the book, allow me to pimp it because I thought it was an interesting read.

Some good insight. It doesn't have his best of best friends in there or his family, they apparently declined being part of it, but overall, it is rather interesting.

hmm, i am pretty sure that wasn't an isolated incidient. in the last, uh 4 or 5 years or so that happened a lot more often than not. he blamed a lot of it, not on drugs, but on having really hard guitar parts that he couldn't remember (which i guess is a viable excuse) and just being too frustrated to continue.

i have a crapton of live stuff, so here's a full set from cambridge, only i seem to be missing clementine. oops, sorry. here's the info via sweet adeline.

01.04.98 - green street grille- cambridge, ma
hxxp://s62.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0RBJNV082M65C01Y9URNQSDDU2

everybody cares, everybody understands
division day
waltz #2 (xo)
say yes
i didn't understand
bled white
clementine
waterloo sunset
rose parade
shooting star
st ides heaven
angeles
miss misery

bootleg: yes
bootleg info: decent quality show, and another favorite. elliott seems to be frustrated by his voice. he says something about not talking all day and it has made his voice sound terrible. approximate runnign time: 40 minutes. this was the going away show for lou barlow (sebadoh, folk implosion, etc.). he was leaving boston for los angeles. waterloo sunset is a kinks song written by ray davies. elliott has covered this song many many times in his live shows. each time it is played, it is as good or better than that last one. this particular version, elliott stops mid-song and then says somethign about the volume of the monitor is going up and down. the sound man asks elliott what is wrong, and after a brief pause, elliott says "it's nothing really..." the crowd laughs and then elliott said "it's definatley not an excuse" . classic elliott moment. st. ides heaven and angeles were attempted but aborted

XO is the only album of his I own and I can't even remember the last time I played it. It was one of those records I was a little more underwhelmed by every time I listened to it.

speaking of Elliott (related anyway), the new Quasi album just leaked

exxxxcellent. you should maybe ysi it for your dear friend... me.

Efrim to thread.

has anyone heard about a bootleg that contains songs smith's family cut from his last album due to content, it's somewhere on buddyheads year end list, apparently it's great.

these are the basement demos, they are excellent

http://s39.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=37G0J7O...450KAR6WCRNHWVL

thanks!

this board may have been in a slump lately, but it's been a cornucopia of quality YSI's.

thanks, looking forward to hearing these, appreciate it.

[quote name='Hewletts Daughter' post='11794' date='Feb 5 2006, 03:42 PM']
Was that when he was opening for Wilco by chance? I heard about that show and actually just read a book on Smith's life where they discuss that show and how he was just falling apart on stage, starting and then ending songs apruptly, not knowing lyrics, et cetera.
Speaking of the book, allow me to pimp it because I thought it was an interesting read.

No, he wasn't opening for Wilco. I saw him at the Street Fair on Sunset in Silverlake. It's $5 or $10 for the show, so I didn't really feel ripped off by it or anything. It was just weird. As someone else said, I think this happened a lot the last few years he was around. And the sad fact is that a lot of hardcore Elliott fans were in denial that the guy had problems. A friend who went to that show with me posted about it on some Elliott site (I'm sure it was sweetadeline) and people were outraged that he was insinuating something was up with Elliott. But that being said, that same friend saw him with the full band set-up less than a year before the Street Fair and he said it was an amazing show. He covered Oasis, "Don't Fear the Reaper" and apparently absolutely rocked. Elliott used to hang out at this bar in L.A. and every now and then when we had nothing to do, a friend and I considered going up to him and trying to hang out and talk with him. But it just seemed like he wanted to be left alone. Towards the end, there was a lot of weird shit happening with the guy. The incident at the Flaming Lips/Beck show in LA, Elliott's songs/computer being stolen, Elliott claiming that people from the label were "following him"... god knows what was really going on.

I never did check that Elliott book out, but maybe I will now.

I saw Elliott in 2000 on the Figure 8 tour. He was with a full band and sounded great. The last song he played with members from Grandaddy was a cover of Don't Fear the Reaper. It was a great show. I was eagerly anticipating a chance to see him again. I will miss his presence in the music world.

here is the mp3 of reaper from the vic in 11/00
http://s55.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2QGIXTD...IQ3OCY1OC9DCWNT

it's funny seeing this thread, cos on saturday i read that book start to finish. couldn't put it down.

xo>either/or>figure 8

i saw him play i chicago a while back. according to the book, it wqas the show that was followed by his first intervention. it was wierd, i remember thinking he was a lot more angry than he appears on the songs.

The 400 Bar show? Yeah, I didn't think too much of it at the time, either. I assumed the forgetting how to play/mucking the words thing was because of nerves or being drunk. It was surreal to think I was within ten feet of the guy looking back.



I went to First Avenue on the 'XO' tour. Full band. The entire set, including encore, wasn't more than 60 minutes. I don't think he played much of 'either/or' on that one, but I could be wrong.

And for the record,

XO > either/or (not by much) > Basement On The Hill > Figure 8 > s/t

That show was fantastic. I couldn't believe how many people they let into The Vic- you couldn't move.

xo, Either/Or and Basement are all great records. Roman Candle and S/T good. Figure 8 average, though "Junk Bond Trader" is one of his best songs.

Either Or and Basement on the Hill top the list. Though Basement is hard to listen to sometimes as it really is a downer knowing there's nothing more to be heard from ESmith.

XO follows close behind and I would then group the rest as to close to call. I really want a four disc Elliot Smith Box to be issued, I'd buy that in a heartbeat.

hmm... you sure about that? the recording i have of the show is at least 90-100 minutes i think (consistant with other shows on that tour)

i was right up front at the 400 Bar show, i had some great photos but lost them in a HD crash about a year later (i was lazy about backing shit up then)

Pretty sure. I remember it being really short for a mainroom gig.

hmmm... if/when i ever find my copy i'll send it your way

i'll just convince myself it was for sure 60-70 minutes since i had to miss the show

Yea, I finally got to finishing the book on Thursday after starting it a week or so earlier. It's a short read, but I just was so bogged down with crap that it didn't get done until later on. But it really is a gripping read.

And I have to say listening again to these Basement II demos, his Big Star cover is really really great.

Figure 8, musically, might be Smith's best work. Lyrically, it is his most distant work, but musically, it kills. "Son of Sam" and that tack piano part is where it's at.

Awkward bump, but I'm ok with it. I've been on an Elliott Smith kick, and rather than making up a new thread, I figured I would just resurrect this.

Pretty excited for the b-side disc coming out in May. A lot of his b-sides I have never heard, so I have a feeling I will be overjoyed once I get my grubby paws on this.

dont mind bumps at all

when does the rarities disc comes out

May 8th I believe.

well figure 8 is definitely the most lush out of all of his albums. he took the full band sound of xo and multiplied it. a lot of people dont like that because it's elliott smith and, given his previous work, should be down and simplified, focusing on the guitar work and heartbreaking lyrics. but figure 8 was his, uhm "happiest" (?) record, so i think it is fitting. and, yea, musically it is fucking amazing.

OTM. Wouldn't mama be proud.

I'd go XO --> Either/Or --> Figure 8 --> From a Basement on the Hill --> Self-titled --> Roman Candle.

It's been quite a while since I've really listened to his stuff. I'm hoping the release of the rarities set will reignite my interest in his catalog.

don't have Basement or Figure 8 so technically I don't count.

1. Elliott Smith
2. XO
3. Either/Or
4. Roman Candle

don't really want to rank them because they're all pretty fantastic. Roman Candle is underrated, not that I made it look otherwise.

yeah, Roman Candle still doesn't do much for me, really. Except for "No Name #1." That song rules. And the "Mad Dog" instrumental is great, too.

Title track is one of his best. The rest is good but not as good as his other albums. I think I go back to it more often than his others though, because it has the perfect mood. Very rainy and mellow, but not as bluntly depressing as Elliott Smith.