Tag Archives: Elliott Smith

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Song of the Day #5,802: ‘Coming Up Roses’ – Elliott Smith

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1995…

#6 – Elliott Smith – Elliott Smith

This is another album I circled back to after discovering the artist a few years down the road. In this case, I first heard Elliott Smith’s 1998 album XO before picking up the three that preceded it.

This self-titled release was Smith’s sophomore effort, and his first on the Kill Rock Stars label. It carried over the lo-fi acoustic style of his debut — the sound most people associate with Smith, though his music was much more produced on future releases.

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Song of the Day #4,930: ‘New Monkey’ – Elliott Smith

Here’s a track from 2004’s New Moon, the second posthumous Elliott Smith release following his death in 2003.

While the album released prior to this one (2004’s From a Basement on the Hill) was in the works but unfinished when Smith died, this one is a collection of unreleased tracks mostly recorded a decade earlier in his career. A lot of newer fans name this as their favorite Smith album, which bugs me because it’s the one Smith release with which he had zero involvement.

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Song of the Day #4,797: ‘Fear City’ – Elliott Smith

‘Fear City’ is a track from the 2007 Elliott Smith compilation album New Moon, which included songs recorded during sessions for the mid-90s albums Elliott Smith and Either/Or.

This album and 2004’s From a Basement on a Hill were the two major posthumous releases after Smith’s 2003 death (which was initially reported as a suicide but later classified as a possible homicide — the investigation remains open).

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Song of the Day #4,643: ‘Pretty (Ugly Before)’ – Elliott Smith

Before today, Elliott smith had made 25 appearances as a Song of the Day artist. Thirteen of those were by my choice, while the other 12 were Random Weekend selections.

Today’s random SOTD evens up the score, making it a baker’s dozen of both random and intentional selections.

One thing is certain: every one of those 26 songs is a gem. In his short career, Smith seemed incapable of recording a song that wasn’t special in some way or another.

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