I saw the desired track, hit the preorder button, and waited.Īnd while there can only be one “Needle in the Hay,” the rest of the tracks here capture the same elements that hooked me far better than anything else I’ve heard. I stopped short of picking up the retrospective Introduction to Elliott Smith in favor of the long-delayed reissue of his self-titled. While there were several records readily available, I needed to find one with “Needle” on it.

Some years later, I spent some time with Either/Or and XO, and while they are certainly both fine records, they also failed to capture me in the same way.Ī couple of months ago though, I realized what a travesty it is that my collection had zero Elliott Smith records, and I sought to change that. I remember picking up New Moon, a posthumous compilation of unreleased material, from the library, but nothing hit me the way “Needle in the Hay” did.

While I had heard Elliott Smith’s many times-often around conversations about Jeff Buckley, oddly, considering that they are probably as different as two alternative-leaning, male singer/songwriters in the 90s can get-but if memory serves, the first time I actually heard him was when “ Needle In the Hay” played in The Royal Tenenbaums. I was instantly hooked on the track-the acoustic guitar strumming with a quiet punk energy, the nearly whispered vocals cracking as they delivered lyrics that painted a clear emotional picture despite its fragmented ambiguity.Īnd then…it kind of stopped there. And stripped down as it is, it maybe hits a little closer to the heart of Smith’s legacy. But even among such a crowded throng, Elliott Smith is celebrated as a truly unique voice.Īnd while Either/Or may be the album most people point to as his opus, the self-titled album that preceded it showcases a raw aesthetic, free of the baroque and powerpop leanings of later albums. There have been hundreds of singer/songwriters that have put out stripped-down songs armed primarily with an acoustic guitar and their own voice.

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