Track Listing

1. Needle In The Hay
2. Christian Brothers
3. Clementine
4. Southern Belle
5. Single File
6. Coming Up Roses
7. Satellite
8. Alphebet Town
9. St Ides Heaven
10. Good To Go
11. White Lady Loves You More
12. Biggest Lie

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9343 in Music
• Released on: 2004-12-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Recorded mildly better than his debut (Roman Candle), the self-titled second solo album is one of the most understated and incredible albums to emerge from the American indie-rock scene in the 1990s. With his nimble picking fingers behind him, Smith writes sad, little songs about drugs and romantic co-dependence 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

CD Description
Oregon-based Elliot Smith was a long shot underdog for commercial success. A decidedly grim-natured whisperer, Smith isthe antithesis of Oregon's celebrated grunge scene. He eschews fuzz-laden power chords and rhythmic sludge for stark acoustics and hushed intensity. The quiet force of this release is deceptively low key. Underneath the stark and fragile beauty, Smith seethes with steely determination. The tightly wound claustrophobia is relieved by his unerring melodic sense. The album's best songs ("Needle in the Hay", "St. Ides Heaven", and "Killing the Southern Belle") are littered with addicts, drunks, bitterness, and isolation; but Smith's tunefulness lifts the album toward a disturbing beauty.

Customer Reviews

Lo-fi brilliance
This is the second in the trilogy of Elliott's lo-fi acoustic albums (the first being Roman Candle and the third being Either/Or) and is an excellent example of the man's talent.
Anyone who cannot stomach simplistic, raw production values might want to steer clear but with songs as strong as this, there is no need to dress them up in silk.

Elliott is an alternative artist but these songs also have a pop sensibility, making them accessible, despite the fact they are at times very dark and moving. He has a keen ear for a melody and never bores the listener. Just as well, as he relies mostly on just an acoustic guitar and his voice to convey his deep, tortured and at times, sweet, lyrics. To swamp his songs in swathes of instrumentation and production would be a shame anyway. This is songwriting at its purest.

Vocally he sounds like a gentle Kurt Cobain with a touch of the Beatles, and his guitar technique is up there with Nick Drake and Paul Simon. The man is sheer class, yet listening to this, it feels like a secret no-one else knows about. That is the intimacy of Smith's songwriting.

Standout tracks include Needle in the Hay, Southern Belle and Coming up Roses but there are many more nuggets of gold to be enjoyed. All in all, if you like your songs stripped bare and bleeding, you'll love this.

Amazing
I discovered Elliott Smith around three weeks ago and immediately spent some precious dole money on three of his albums. This, his second, was my last purchase, and I'd put it up there with Either/Or. Basically it has beautiful melodies, lo-fo production, acoustic guitar, and great lyrics. It's everything i like about music, minor chords, no overwrought instrumentation, and, again, melodies. "St ides Heaven" has an amazing chorus and great unrepentant drink-and-drugs lyrics. "Christian Brothers", complete eith trademark swearing, is catchy, amazing. "Needle In The Hay" the same. The only reason i hold back a star? Some tracks, around the middle numbers, lack the great melody, but it's always better to have four diamonds rather than dependable mediocrity. Elliott Smith is everything Bernard Butler would like to be. Buy it.

Oh!
This is outstanding, I got to hear about this guy through a friend who's taste is sometimes suspect but this! The opener Needle in The Hay is in my favourite movie of recent times the royal tenenbaums in its best scene such swirling, swelling melancholy tugs at every bit of your head he shall leave a hole in music