"Pictures of Me:" A Quick Rant On Elliott Smith

Elliott Smith is one of the most interesting artists that I've come across. A friend turned me on to his music when I was in high school by burning me a copy of Either/Or. I always really liked that album and listened to it pretty regularly but it never went further than that until a while back when I became really interested in his work. Since then I have collected just about his entire discography and have been listening to him pretty much non-stop lately.

One of the most interesting things about Smith to me is his songwriting. A lot of people describe him as a singer/songwriter, but Smith himself always dismissed the tag, saying that singer/songwriters often write manipulative lyrics trying to get a listener to feel the way they do, while he thought of himself more as a describer, like a storyteller or a painter, and thinking of him in this way can make his songs feel like musical photographs.

With most artists a song is about something specific, and knowing the story behind the song makes it more interesting because you know where the head and heart of the artist was when the song came about. I usually love this approach (see my post on Layla) because very often songs mean more when you fully understand the story behind it.

With Smith it is a very different listening experience. His lyrics are full of metaphors, and often paint a picture of some base human experience, like feeling lonely or being cheated on. However these songs are not necessarily autobiographical (although he likes to write in the first person in most songs, and undoubtedly a good portion of his songs probably stem from something personal to him or someone around him) and so don't have to refer to a specific incident, and by leaving his lyrics intentionally vague, metaphorical and sometimes very obscure, some of his songs, at least to me, become the musical equivalent of a Rorschach test, where the listener hears him singing about something specific to themselves.

His lyrics have references to drugs, alcohol, and suicide, but often he uses these as metaphors in themselves, so I try to urge people not just to assume that it is about his addictions. I have the same problem talking to people about Alice in Chains (yes, Layne Staley overdosed on heroin and very openly wrote lyrics referencing his addiction, but not every song is about being addicted to heroin). While some songs are indeed about these dark subjects, I always try to keep my mind open when listening to his songs and lyrics for deeper meanings and try not to reduce every lyric and song to simply being about his addictions.

Following his progression as a musician is also very fascinating. His early works were lo-fi releases consisting pretty much of Smith and an acoustic guitar. On Either/Or he started adding more musical depth to the recordings, including multitracking, more instrumentation, and harmonies. On this note, Smith was a very talented guitarist and musician. While he won't blaze solos, he often personally played the majority of the instruments, could layer harmonies with himself and could build a song in layers of varied instruments. This becomes more evident on his major label releases XO, where his Beatles influence runs rampant, and Figure 8, which has so many layers of instrumentation, including harpsichords, bells and chimes, that Smith's knack for building songs becomes really prevalent. XO is usually considered his masterpiece album, although the posthumous From a Basement on the Hill probably could have surpassed this, but since he died before its completion, you can't tell if what came out is anywhere near the product that would've been released had he lived to see it finished.

By the way, Smith's switch to a major label didn't corrupt his musical approach or his vision for his albums, as it can for some bands when people view it as selling out. For example, 33 1/3 is a blog that often releases short books about certain albums, detailing accounts of the album's conception, construction and release, its songs, and what went on behind the scenes during the whole process. I bought their release on XO and it was very enlightening and really added something to how I listen to that album now, so I recommend checking it out.

Smith also was a fascinating human being, with very unique views on the world and human nature. For example he believed that a person's potential could never be reached. Initially this comes across a bleak view, but really he always explained that he simply believed that there was no limit to what someone could accomplish. He felt that if you could reach what you considered to be your potential, that would be kind of depressing because it meant you couldn't be better.

This belief comes across in how he wrote his songs. He was constantly reworking lyrics and changing songs. It seemed like he always thought his songs could be a little better. Search any of his songs on youtube and you will find a number of different versions of all of his songs. As someone who loves alternate takes and versions and constantly buys collectors editions of albums for their bonus tracks I love hearing how songs progress so this aspect to his work is particularly fascinating. For this reason I would also recommend New Moon which came out a few years ago and is a collection of unreleased songs and different versions of others.

Despite often being labeled as a depressed, lonely addict who killed himself (his death is considered mysterious however, and it is not known positively if he in fact committed suicide although it is most likely the case), interviews with his friends describe him as a man with a great sense of humor who instantly made a lasting impression on anyone he met. I hope to write about his music more specifically and more in depth, but for now I would really recommend listening to his work. Newcomers should probably start with Either/Or, XO, and Figure 8 as these are the most accessible but you really can't go wrong with anything he as released.