Elliott Smith - New Moon (Domino)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
I'm wary of this for a few reasons. It's a collection of songs recorded (but never released) between 1994 and 1997. A glimpse at any Elliott Smith discography will show you that Elliott released not one, not two, but three whole studio albums in this period. So, surely, there was a reason songs like this were left off those records? And surely the only reason for their omission can be that Elliott Smith himself didn't think they were good enough to release? Even though more than half of these songs are actually really rather lovely, isn't the reason for our not being accustomed with them just as simple as that? He had the medium to release them if he wanted. He chose not to. Furthermore, is there really any need for it to be split over two whole CDs? Take off the one track that's still widely in print elsewhere, and 'New Moon' could be one meaty, less pricey, eighty minute disc. So, what's the point in printing two of them? Are we being ripped off?
Fans eh? They'll buy anything... thing is, if they buy this, they do get a genuinely good record. It's far from a good introductory work, only an essential purchase if you'd enjoyed each and every one of his albums. Unlike 'From a Basement on a Hill', this isn't something he was working on at the time of his untimely death. It exists purely because he is dead - and this is the closest the far from satiated fan base will get to new material.
Where is it best? 'High Times' is stunning, Smith at his most strained and melodically powerful - it sounds like a Low song, and elsewhere 'Angel in the Snow' finds his guitar playing at its most wonderfully Nick Drake-like. 'Riot Coming' is one of the more brilliant things here, possessive of a guitar line that skips all over the place and a vocal that sounds like the very essence of melancholy. 'New Monkey' is lovely too, and though a whole album of stuff of its ilk would result in a Fountains of Wayne record, it's nice to hear that he had the capacity to be quite a happy fellow now and again. It's one of the few moments where drums rear their head on 'New Moon' also, presumably a symptom of a lot of this being home recorded stuff, though it's a remarkably high standard, bearing that in mind. We guess he was something of a perfectionist.
Bits of it however don't seem finished - 'Looking over my Shoulder', despite being melodically sturdy, has some pretty cringeworthy and obvious rhyming couplets that this king of the written word would probably have ironed out if it came to being on a proper record. 'Thirteen' is similarly too simple - 'won't you let me walk you home from school / won't you let me meet you at the pooooool....' surely being a line he would have deemed too crude for public consumption?
That said, All of CD One is highly listenable, the worst thing you can say about it is that it drifts by, albeit pleasantly enough, in places. CD Two however is disappointingly less focused, less finished, less necessary. It sounds exactly like you'd expect Elliott Smith outtakes to sound like - songs he wasn't particularly swollen with pride about, not keen enough on to release. Even the titles seem lazy - 'Whatever (Folk Song In C)' for example, is about as inspiring as the moniker suggests it might be. He knew also that 'Either/Or' was a title good enough for a record, but that the song given that title just didn't stand up - it's here, and it doesn't.
'Big Decision' is a particularly sketchy recording, levels all over the place, half formed ideas reigning as king. 'Placeholder' after it has a similar unwelcome hum to each of the lower acoustic guitar tones, and here it all begins to feel like you're listening in on something far too personal, songs that you were never meant to reach your ears - or perhaps anyone's. These are nice tunes just searching for something about them that would transcend the merely pleasant. The ones on his albums did that with alarming regularity.
'New Moon' is fifty percent a f**king great record, twenty percent a flawed but interesting record, and about thirty percent an unnecessary one. But as he says in 'New Monkey', "anything is better than nothing". And despite the motivation behind it, this surely is. The faults to it don't make you like Elliott Smith any less, yet do prompt you to question the motives of the people who continue to release his work.
Stream four tracks from 'New Moon' HERE.
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