52 Minutes of Aural Pleasure (Figure 8 - Elliot Smith)

Member Name: Katz1

Product:	Figure 8 - Elliot Smith
Date:	19/07/01 (187 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great for chilling out to

Disadvantages: Very few

Sit back, relax, and let the gentle voice of Elliot Smith wash over you.

I was given the CD, Figure 8, as a present for my most recent birthday. I had never heard of Elliot Smith before and had no idea what to expect. I liked it almost at once. Its unique blend of original tracks, gentle melodies, and vocal harmonies adds up to 52 minutes of pure aural pleasure! Its also a grower and gets better each time you listen.

Figure 8 is classed as a Rock album, but is, in fact, more like folk-rock. It sometimes has a sixties hippie feel to it, reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkel, or the Byrds but with a contemporary edge (thank goodness). The CD is a mixture of piano, organ, and strings and only a couple of tracks feature drum beats. There are also a couple that feature piano solos (such as “In the Lost and Found” and “Goodbye”).

It is by no means a get-up-and-go or fast-paced album – I wouldn’t listen to it before a big night out or for a party or anything, and it isn’t a CD you would want to dance to. It is, however, great for cheering you up when you’re feeling a bit down – Smith’s voice has a soothing quality that makes you forget all the day’s hassles.


The track listing of Figure 8 looks like this:

1.Son of Sam
2. Somebody that I used to Know
3. Junk Bond Trade
4. Everything Reminds Me of Her
5. Everything Means Nothing to Me
6. LA
7. In the Lost and Found
8. Stupidity Tries
9. Easy Way Out
10. Wouldn't Mama be Proud
11. Color Bars
12. Happiness
13. Pretty Mary K
14. I Better Be Quiet Now
15. Can't Make a Sound
16. Bye

“Son of Sam” is the most upbeat of the tracks and is probably the reason it was chosen to start the album.

My current favourite is “Everything Reminds Me of Her” as I feel it is the most laid-back.

The final three tracks ar
e the slowest and allow the CD to wind down to a close, fading out to silence.

So who is Elliot Smith?

He is a solo artist from Portland, Oregon (U.S.A) and has brought out five albums in his current guise:

1994: "Roman Candle" (Cavity Search),
1995: "Elliot Smith" (Kill Rock Stars)
1997: "Either/Or" (Domino).
1998: “XO” (Dreamworks)
2000: “Figure 8” (Dreamworks)


In 1998 he signed a major recording deal with Dreamworks and had a short documentary entitled Strange Parallel, directed by Steve Hanft (who has also directed some of Beck’s videos), made about him. The famous director Gus Van Sant and fellow native of Portland, Oregon, also invited Elliot to contribute some songs to the soundtrack of Good Will Hunting. This led to an Oscar nomination for Elliot for the song “Miss Misery” and he appeared live at the awards ceremony in 1998.

To write his songs, he admits to hanging out in Brooklyn bars and compiling abstracted snatches of conversation drawn from human relationships, which is definitely an interesting way to work. He describes his own work as follows:
“I think it's pretty much impressionistic what I do, as opposed to, y'know, the songs having a point or a message. I much prefer Bob Dylan when it was impressionistic...and not like preaching...I like observing people and faces and how people interact in conversation with each other. Bars are good also because you get the chance to observe all this stuff and no one will take any notice of me. I fit right in…just another scruffy person in the corner.”


Then why haven’t many people heard of him?

The reason for this is mostly because he shies away from the Media. He has been called a gentle, compassionate, humble, self-doubting genius with natural modesty. Having never met him or seen him interviewed I couldn’t p
ossibly comment, but his music also has a slightly muted and understated feel to it that I suspect reflects his shy personality.

He is no snappy dresser either; he has unkempt, greasy hair and dresses a bit like an ageing indie kid from the nineties (threadbare jeans and t-shirts et al). He is, in short, an unlikely pop star. Quote from an interview with Muse in 1998: “I still don't understand why some things are popular, and some things aren't. I don't even like to think about it. The more popular you get, the more people want to know about aspects of your life that aren't necessarily related to the music. That's a bit scary. Some interviews become very uncomfortable because of that.”

Who will like this CD?

If you’re a fan of Badly Drawn Boy and perhaps even Belle and Sebastian you will probably enjoy this CD.
Although this may not be a selling point, parts of the album reminded me of some of the slower Boo Radleys’ tracks on the “Wake up Boo” (1995) album – Elliot Smith’s voice in particular is very similar to Sice’s. The Simon and Garfunkel influences are apparent in “I Better be Quiet Now” and “Can’t Make a Sound”.

Some of the critics of Figure 8 say that it is too commercial – that Smith has, in effect, sold out. They comment that fans of his previous material may feel that this is too mainstream and too different from his earlier work. However, not being very familiar with any of his previous artistic endeavours, I can only say that, to me, even though many of the tracks are quite polished, they still have an original edge to them that makes them a pleasure to listen to, and surely, the point of bringing out new CDs is to move on and progress from your earlier work.

I do not imagine hard rock fans will be impressed by this album as it gently meanders through its tracks but it is currently one of my favo
urite feel-good albums (in addition to The Hour of Bewilderbeast by Badly Drawn Boy). I would recommend it to anyone who needs de-stressing (not distressing!!!)

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