The Album Review Club - Christmas Break Until 8th January

Don't think it is any surprise that an album that sounds a lot like one aspect of the Beatles and a little bit like Oasis did not do much for me. Unoffensive and at times pleasant enough, but did not move me.

Did a right dive into the lyrics and his wider story, and while some of the themes and wrestles are my type of intrigue, ultimately felt the music didn't do enough to carry them through. Bottle up and Explode, and why on earth he put Waltz no.2 ahead of Waltz no.1 were the highlights of my engagement, so a 5 is about as fair as it gets.
 
I don't know if I am biased against this album artist courtesy of John Cusack, as every time I think of it I automatically think..."Elliott!!! Elliott is a fat kid with glasses who eats paste"
Another tough week for me I'm afraid. Once again I simply didn't get on with this offering and it wasn't really a pleasure listening to it. I kept on coming back to the image of Elliott eating paste or him performing in a coffee shop where hardly anyone is listening.
Save for bits of "Bled White"/"Amity" & "A Question Mark" this just washed over me. I say washed over but it actually started to annoy me a little. I think it was much of his delivery, the stretching of almost every word across most songs.
As per The Chameleons, I just didn't get into this and was happy when I had my 3 listens done.
It's a 4 from the Derry jury
 
Not what I was expecting and obviously not quite what my son was expecting either when he first said something along the lines of "oh got to listen to isery music have you" only to raise his eyebrows when in the car with me and Waltz#2 came on and say "I didn't know this was him" in a sort of appreciative way.

I wish I could remember which was the Elliot Smith CD I bought and discared many years ago. Possibly an earlier more accoustic/ folky sort of one?

Anyway, not for the first time recently I've found myself revising my opinion of an artist. The Chameleons made it into my consciousness after years and repeated failures. Elliot Smith much mre succesful second time around.

This album sounds crisp and fresh, I've no idea if it's complex, I suspect some of the composition is failry simple but from the off their are some great tunes with highlights being Sweet Adeline, Independence Day and the aforementioned Waltz#2.

I focused on the original 14 songs and in truth there may be one or two too many but I was very pleasantly surpised by this. I can't say I've taken in many of the lyrics but I'm aware there may be a darkness there. The music generally belies this though.

Big Joe Corrigan wondered if he should have nominated Either/ Or instead. I gave that a listen too and will listen again. I'm not sure it's quite as good but repeated listens might make it so.

don't usually go half points but I'm a bit stuck between a 7 and an 8 here. I think with one or two tracks less we might have got a tighter album which would have pushed it to the higher mark but as it is a decent 7.5 and another artist to take more seriously.
 
XO

Great debut nomination Big Joe, I get the feeling we have similar musical tastes, weren’t you going to do a Banjo playlist ?
I’ve mentioned about finding hidden gems on this thread before and although I can’t really class this as hidden as I was familiar with Elliott Smith and I’d heard Waltz#2 before, it’s a great album that was new to me.

Once I’d gotten over ES trying to sound like The Beatles as I’m not a big fan,and accepted this was his own voice and sound I really started to enjoy it.Yes a lot of the lyrics are morose yet some are humorous in places. He was obviously a very talented multi instrumentalist as well as a great lyricist, his voice could be stronger but the fragility of it suits a lot of the songs.

I don’t think there’s any fillers on here altough it’s a tad too long, i particularly like the run from the first track upto Waltz#1
‘Baby Britain’ reminds me of Ben Folds who was a mate of ES and wrote a song in memory to him,which I’ve heard many times on his album ‘Songs For Silverman’

I had no idea who or what ‘Pitseleh’ was so I looked it up and it’s a Yiddish term of endearment.
I’ve now listened to Either/Or and Figure 8 but I think this album was the right pick as it’s the most varied and accessible.I also watched a few documentaries on YT, he was a very complex troubled guy and it would be no surprise if he did indeed take his own life although stabbing yourself to death is quite difficult I believe, so who knows.

Thanks @Big Joe Corrigan I’m now a ES fan.

9/10
 
Big Joe quote..."I’m guessing if you like your music upbeat, maybe you can opt out now, no need to go any further, just mark it as 1/10."

Oh this would have been so easy to do but then what would the point of the thread be?

But saying that I've not had a lot of time to listen to this weeks offering properly, sorry.

From what I have listened to...

The first two songs sound very similar to each other, slow start...then it hits. I prefer Tomorrow Tomorrow but both are quite nice and, in the way of JJ Cale, short.

Nothing else really grabbed me until Independence Day but then that sort of meandered along with nothing jumping out which was a pity as I liked the start. Bled White sounded more indie. Lloyd Cole ish. Not for me. Amity, once again started well, Soundgarden backnotes and got a bit grungy like in the middle. Too short!

After that I sort of faded out but there were some beachboyesque harmonies going on at one point.

So I make that 3 songs I enjoyed, a couple of others that were ok but the rest merged into one. Mercifully most of them were short. On my scoring system that's a 3/10 for the songs. But the rest, although not my bag at all, far to slow and twee, even given the subject matter/ background, were well done. I could appreciate them without really liking them, if that makes sense.

5/10
 
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