Elliott Smith - A Short Review On The Artist

Elliott Smith. For many, the name will mean nothing. For even more, it means everything. I was once a part of the former group. This should not in any way imply that I have joined the ranks of the latter. Elliott Smith does not mean everything to me. However, he now means something; and, for someone who’s writing a review on his work, that’s a good place to start.

He once said that “people just… y'know, they'll review your record in two sentences and put you in this little stupid box that you don't want to be in.” He’s right. People like me will sit up in our ivory towers thinking we know something about music. Thinking we know enough to listen to stuff like Elliott’s and make a definite judgment on it. I’m not going to do that. To do so would be to insult the art that is Elliott Smith. Even he was loathe to talk of the meaning behind his music and lyrics. He preferred to write the songs, record them, and then let the listeners take from them whatever meaning they wanted to. He admitted to not thinking “about the general public since I have no idea what the general public is and I don't think anybody does.” The fact that he himself may not have even known what his lyrics meant is something that most fans would not be able to accept as a possibility. However, it was a reality: “sometimes it seems like because I'm the one that made it up, it makes me kind of a bad person to ask what the songs are about.”

Throughout his music, and his interviews, the prevailing image of Elliott Smith is one of a man who would prefer to sit behind a screen and play his music from there. In fact, he once suggested doing just that when asked to play guitar at a friend’s gig. He constantly worried about people’s inability to look past the posters, to see past the image of Elliott Smith portrayed after the breakthrough into the ‘popular music’ world that was “Miss Misery” (the Oscar nominated song which featured on ‘Good Will Hunting’ and secured Elliott a performance on the Oscars). “There's a part of songs that are always personal, but I'm not particularly interested in concocting a picture of myself. The media is more about building celebrities than playing music.”

On the 21st October, 2003 Elliott Smith allegedly took a kitchen knife, and stabbed himself through the heart. His final, although unfinished, album ‘From A Basement On The Hill’ was released after his death. Someone once said of it that ‘if you’re not moved in some way, then you don’t move.’ It certainly may not have been his best work, but it had the potential to be. So was ‘Basement’ just a suicide note put to music? Retrospectively, you could forgive one for thinking it might be. It is hard to listen to it without the tragedy of his death overwhelming the music. However, it shouldn’t be scrutinised for all possible hints that death was at the forefront of his mind. It was one of my favourite Elliott Smith albums before I found out it had been released posthumously. From the opening track “Coast To Coast”, it is evident that you’re in for an emotional ride. The track begins with the faint sounds of whispering voices, before launching into a song that could easily be the soundtrack to your life. “Last stop for a resolution, end of the line. Is it confusion?” Down-beat lyrics to an Up-beat tune. Due to the fact that the track listing was put together after his death, some tracks do seem a bit misplaced. “Let’s Get Lost” could ironically be referring to the innocent listener getting lost in the muddled myriad of emotions dripping from one track into the other. A melting pot of emotion; perhaps the best tribute that could be paid to an artist who believed that the more emotion in a song the better as “that’s what people are like.” “Twilight” is one of my favourite songs on the album. The fragility of Smith’s voice is hauntingly tragic; “I could make you smile if you stayed a while, but you’re already somebody’s baby.”

It has been said that “Smith's music transcends the bland work of songwriters such as Damien Rice, Ryan Adams and David Gray - there's real emotion here”. I think to say that is to go a bit far. Elliott Smith is not the only one to arm his songs with emotive force. There are plenty of others out there who sing with as much pain and sadness and hunger and despair. The fact that he may have killed himself does not make his music more credible; and yet, for many of his fans, the fact that he may have killed himself is precisely the reason his music gained credibility. Genius should not need tragedy in order for it to be detected. Perhaps we should accept that Smith was no musical genius. He was simply a guy singing about the way “I feel, and the way others I know feel.” In a world where emotions are created only to be suppressed, perhaps that is the only type of genius worth talking about.

Ray Charles "Genius Loves Company" - Album Review

When they decided to call Ray Charles’ final album “Genius Loves Company” you have to wonder whether they meant a genius loves the company of other genius’ or whether he simply loves the company of anyone at all. Upon listening to the album, it seems clear to me that Ray Charles certainly does not limit the company he keeps to fellow genius’, and indeed seems to harbour a certain fondness for singers who feel right at home with their lips planted firmly on his posterior. Then again, maybe that’s the price one has to pay for being somewhat of a legend. To be fair to Ray though, the choice of artists he collaborated with on this album was no doubt more the work of record companies and managers rather than his own doing. Nevertheless, the album is not only a complete disappointment to someone familiar with Ray’s work, but I imagine it would also be a let down for someone buying it solely on account of the fantastic portrayal of Charles by Jamie Foxx in the biographical movie “Ray”. This portrayal would have been a last impression more fitting to be left on the world than “Genius Loves Company” has proved to be.

Although there is nothing too bad that can be said about the album, there is certainly nothing too good that can be said either. Indeed, the whole thing just reeks of unoriginality. A group of people singing songs that have been sung too many times before. The only difference this time is that Ray Charles is one of them.

The album begins promisingly, with a beautiful little number featuring Norah Jones. In fact, “Here We Go Again” is undoubtedly one of the highlights of ‘Genius Loves Company’. It moves swiftly into the more upbeat “Sweet Potato Pie” with James Taylor and, as a big Taylor fan, I enjoyed this track immensely. “You Don’t Know Me” is up next, and while Diana Krall and Ray Charles do a pretty good version, it just doesn’t live up to the mind-blowing recording by Eva Cassidy and Chuck Brown. For that reason alone, I found this track almost painful to listen to at first. It did grow on me eventually, but I still think it’s nothing on the Chuck Brown version. The rest of the album is made up of songs that the public should be sick of by now, but evidently are not. “Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word”, “Fever”, “It Was A Very Good Year” and “Over The Rainbow” all contribute to lining the album with its many layers of startling predictability.

“Do I Ever Cross Your Mind” is one of the few gems of the album and is strategically placed midway. A sort of half way house within which to take refuge from the tediousness surrounding you. Ray Charles sounds right at home here, probably because it’s a song which originally featured on his own work many years ago. “Sinner’s Prayer”, another old hit of Ray’s, recorded with B.B. King, is a bluesy track which you feel is rightly more about the music than the career prospects. While Gladys Knight’s collaboration with Ray on “Heaven Help Us All” was enjoyable, it really is Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love” that ends the album on a good note, no pun intended.

All in all, the album is more of a keepsake than a work of musical genius. There is nothing new, there is nothing original, and there is nothing to encourage you to put the record on repeat and keep it there. Like the final work of so many artists, this album was bought by the public and showered with awards by the industry for the simple fact that it is Ray Charles’ final record. What its success would be like if he were still alive is debatable, but in the words of a good friend of mine, the record as it stands sounds like too many people telling Ray Charles that he’s great.

2007 - Off To A Bad Start

Happy New Year everyone!
I know it's been too long since I've posted. But to be honest, I haven't posted because all that there seems to post about these days is just so depressing!
I was hoping that 2007 would be a different year. That it would see the world recognizing its mistakes and putting things right. Alas, it is not to be it seems.
Not only has Bush signed a new law allowing him to open the private mail of American citizens, but the US is also putting into motion plans to build a nuclear weapon. Unsuprisingly, Israel is planning on launching a nuclear strike against Iran. Ah the irony is almost amusing. They slam Iran for TRYING to start building a nuclear program, then decide to tackle the "problem" by attacking Iran with the very nuclear weapons they seem so opposed to. Does anyone else see the deplorability of such an attitude?!!
The White House has denied public access to its visitor logs, and Iraqi oil will soon be put onto the Western market for greedy hands to get their fingers on.

Bill Fisher writes an interesting piece about the ironies of 2006.

As you can see, the world just isn't a great place to blog about anymore. Perhaps I should just stop following current affairs, stop casting everything that happens in a political light. But then, surely the state of the world is the most important thing that there is.

Sometimes...I find it hard to keep believing that. Ignorance is bliss, and I'm beginning to wish I were more ignorant.