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ELLIOTT SMITH | 
| Artist: Elliott Smith
Label: Kill Rock Stars
Category: Music
List Price: $10.98
Buy New: $10.43
You Save: $0.55 (5%)
Rating:  73 reviews
Sales Rank: 74677
Media: LP Record
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 12.2 x 12.1 x 0.2
UPC: 759656024617
EAN: 0759656024617
ASIN: B00000373F
Release Date: January 20, 2004
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Needle in the Hay | | • | Christian Brothers | | • | Clementine | | • | Southern Belle | | • | Single File | | • | Coming Up Roses | | • | Satellite | | • | Alphabet Town | | • | St. Ides Heaven | | • | Good to Go | | • | The White Lady Loves You More | | • | The Biggest Lie |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
Recorded mildly better than his debut (Roman Candle on Cavity Search), the self-titled second solo album is one of the most understated and incredible albums to emerge from the indie-rock scene in the 1990s. With his nimble picking fingers behind him, Smith writes sad, little songs about drugs and romantic codependence that border on the obsessed. "Needle in the Hay" and "The White Lady Loves You More" are exemplary tunes that fuse the Beatles' pop sense with Neil Young's sense of doom. Lying in his own burned out basement, Smith can rough up the gentlest love song with a few salty words of choice. --Rob O'Connor
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| Customer Reviews: Read 68 more reviews...
 This is Elliott November 21, 2008
Jeremiah L. Olson
I believe this album truely defines Elliott not only as a musician but, from what I understand, a person. This album is pure emotion. While it is fueled with anger and sadness, the songs fully explore these emotions. There is not a bad song on this album. I can see how someone, especially someone who is only listening to this album as background music, would hear a similar sound in each song. This is definitely an album that you need to sit and absorb. Listen to the lyrics and the instruments. Take breaks if you plan to listen to the album more than once though because you may start to absorb some of Elliott's feelings. Thanks Elliott for leaving us your music.
 Elliott's suffering is our catharsis November 9, 2008
Velocipede (808 state)
I usually loath introspective singer-songwriters who play acoustic guitar and sing depressing songs, but Smith's music penetrates my shields and makes me weep for this man who draws a great amount of empathy from unknown parts of my psyche.
I give this album 4/5 simply because I think his swan song, "From a Basement on a Hill" is musically superior, or at least more complex, and includes more anger, which is a relatively positive and more comfortable sentiment. For me, the raw emotion of his eponymous album is too much for frequent repeated listening.
Vintage Elliott Smith April 22, 2008
Jimmy Dean
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Emerging from the shadow of Kurt Cobain in the late 90's, Elliott Smith was perhaps the greatest singer songwriter of his generation. Smith's genius was his unabashedly honest, naked, poetic lyricism that was so beautifully complemented by his unpretentiousness acoustic guitar. Like none that came before him, Smith delivers note after note of haunted, sparkling melancholy. Far from gloomy, his songs radiate with incredible emotional intensity. Combining an unbridled punk rage within the guise of an acoustic folk song, his songs speak for themselves. Reflective and introspective, each song unfolds like a delicately wrapped package, revealing itself slowly. Smith's songs present themselves like late night thoughts that just won't go away. Concerning themselves with drug abuse, depression, and troubled relationships, Smith exorcises his inner demons and releases them in a beautiful, blinding, luminosity, albeit born from dark, painful emotional despair.
Elliott Smith returned with twelve brand new songs on his second self titled album a year after his debut on the Kill Rock Stars label. Sonically, ES is virtually indistinguishable from his debut Roman Candle, although the songwriting was becoming increasingly sophisticated and developed. There is also slightly more raw aggression in both his playing and vocal delivery. Smith has said himself that ES was recorded on his girlfriend's borrowed guitar, and that it was tuned down and he didn't realize it. Fortunately, it works to his favor. What works so well for Smith's sound is the intimacy that comes across, lyrically and instrumentally. Listening to this in a quiet, dark room, you can literally feel Smith breathing down your neck. Complementing his introspective lyrics, the delivery is no less than perfect. Sounding more and more haunting with each verse, Smith brings us deeper and deeper into his dark world of despair and desolation. Confronting drug abuse, depression, and alcoholism, Smith exorcises his demons in a beautiful, emotionally confessional arc of songwriting. The first half of the album leaves the listener breathless, Smith bares his soul, not looking back. Lyrically, there is not a "weak" song on the entire album. There is incredible cohesiveness and an intimacy bordering on uncomfortable. Slowly, it becomes apparent ES is a step forward from Roman Candle, each songs begins to immortalize itself into your consciousness with each repeated listen. His subtle melodic arrangements are so brilliantly crafted that they only begin to reveal themselves upon repeated listen. It is at this time that you realize his lyrics follow the exact same pattern. Again, so perfectly is his songwriting complemented by his paper thin deliver, that you can't imagine it being played by anyone else. On "Coming Up Roses" Smith begins to embellish his songs with drums and harmonica(used in RC). The effect positively gives his songs a more three dimensional feel. Stylistically, ES is perhaps the climax of his first three releases- catching him in his prime, between Roman Candle and Either/Or before he moved on to greater production and a richer more full bodied sound. Track 1 "Needle In The Hay" was featured in Wes Anderson's film The Royal Tenenbaums. Elliott Smith is perhaps the definitive work of arguably the greatest singer/ songwriter of his generation.
Lo-fi Wonder March 1, 2008
Sean Choate
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love Elliott Smith's work(Mostly his lo-fi stuff). I got this on vinyl, and it's amazing. Hearing his fingers shift on the guitar is such an amazing sound that you just don't get anymore. Powerful lyrics such as Needle In The Hay and Coming Up Roses really give yo something to awe over.
ES FanBoy September 25, 2007
N. Wells (TN)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If dead men can have fan boys, I would be one. The album is amazing like everything hes written. This one does have a more distinct grungy? feel. It feels rougher to me than the others, don't know the words to describe that.
The proceeds just go to his abusive father and his label, so do what you will with that info.
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