Figure 8

the take

The biggest fault of this Elliott Smith record is it being an Elliott Smith record. Not suggesting that Elliott Smith is bad by saying that, far from that, but the album opens up with a lot of punk influence and lot more energy than his prior solo work. But then, in the second half of the record, it switches up to these more typical, lower energy Elliott tracks. I think this could have been Elliott’s best album if it remained on the track that the first 8 songs lay out. This is the most sonically different Elliott record. It frequents saloon sounding pianos, and incorporates the most heavy and driving sounds of his solo discography. It doesn’t completely stray away from the typical stripped, raw acoustic sound of his other work, but it doesn’t embrace it. Especially in the first half. Son of Sam is a stellar opener. Everything Reminds Me of Her/Everything Means Nothing to Me is one of the peak moments of music history. L.A. is a ripping track. And then after that, it’s a mixture of pretty good to great tracks. But nothing amazing. This album is still super special to me. When it hits, it’s amazing.