And that’s what bums me out so much, not just because of the fact that they both fucking died, but they could have been buddies and they might have even hung on for each other. I’m gonna go there now, I don’t know how Lennon and McCartney met, but if they hadn’t it would have been a complete miss of an opportunity. He would have gone to one of the shows, or they would have met somehow.

And if fucking Kurt had just stuck around for a few more months, which was when Elliott had started to record, I know for a fucking fact that he would have adored Elliott. It might have been more interesting had he sung 'Angeles.And when you’re talking about the loss, if Kurt had just fucking stayed alive for a couple of more months, if you look at the timeline and you look at where both of them were geographically, they were only like two hours away from each other. soared after he took his bow at the Oscars with Celine Dion and Trisha Yearwood. Ironically, 'Angeles' was included on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack, which won Smith the acclaim of Hollywood's biggest, brightest, and best connected voting body, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. The lyrics are a darkly biting rejection of the hypercapitalist dream machinery of Los Angeles (it would make a great theme song for Smith's label, Kill Rock Stars). 'Angeles' is equally ethereal - Smith's acoustic fingerpicking spins out notes which briskly move around a single atmospheric keyboard chord, like aural minnows swimming toward a solitary light at the surface of the water. He sings, in his endearingly limited whisper, of late-night drinking and introspection, and his subdued strumming creates a minor-key mood befitting the mysteries of self. 'Between the Bars,' for example, plays Smith's strengths perfectly. The humbler arrangements are better suited to the sparse equipment. While the full-band songs are catchy and smart, Smith's recording equipment isn't quite up to the standards set by the Beatles and the Beach Boys.

The most alluring numbers, however, are still his quietly melancholy acoustic ones. Several of the songs mimic the melody mastery of pop bands from 1960s. While he still plays all the instruments himself, he plays more of them. Elliott Smith's third album sees his one-man show getting a little more ambitious.

Elliott smith either or cd 2