"I really like some of his songs - 'All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down,' not to be confused with 'All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight,' which is a very different song," Smith says, and it's unclear whether he's deadpanning. Smith, in fact, claims to be a fan of the country legend - "Bocephus" to those in the know. Everything about him says, "I'm a singer-songwriter," even his quiet voice and shifting eyes.Įverything, that is, except his redneck outfit: a camouflage hunting cap and a faded T-shirt promoting Hank Williams Jr. Here's this skinny guy with pale skin and greasy hair sitting at a table in his tour bus, drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette. It might have been more interesting had he sung "Angeles.Elliott Smith keeps moving Songwriter talks about relocation, labels, and gunsĬontradictory Smith: Introverted singer-songwriter or gun-toting tough guy?ĪTLANTA (CNN) - If you didn't know Elliott Smith, you might be slightly confused. soared after he took his bow at the Oscars with Celine Dion and Trisha Yearwood. Ironically, "Angeles" was included on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack, which won Smith the acclaim of Hollywood's biggest, brightest, and best connected voting body, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. The lyrics are a darkly biting rejection of the hypercapitalist dream machinery of Los Angeles (it would make a great theme song for Smith's label, Kill Rock Stars). "Angeles" is equally ethereal - Smith's acoustic fingerpicking spins out notes which briskly move around a single atmospheric keyboard chord, like aural minnows swimming toward a solitary light at the surface of the water. He sings, in his endearingly limited whisper, of late-night drinking and introspection, and his subdued strumming creates a minor-key mood befitting the mysteries of self. "Between the Bars," for example, plays Smith's strengths perfectly. The humbler arrangements are better suited to the sparse equipment. While the full-band songs are catchy and smart, Smith's recording equipment isn't quite up to the standards set by the Beatles and the Beach Boys. The most alluring numbers, however, are still his quietly melancholy acoustic ones. Several of the songs mimic the melody mastery of pop bands from 1960s. While he still plays all the instruments himself, he plays more of them. Elliott Smith's third album sees his one-man show getting a little more ambitious.
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