Description

When you hear it Elliott’s way you know it to be true. Everything is exactly right when I walk around here drunk every night with an open container from 7-11, in St. Ides Heaven.His self titled 1995 album follows where his debut, Roman Candle, took off. It’s mostly just Smith and his gently fingerpicked acoustic guitar, embellished a bit more often with drums, harmony vocals, and the odd additional instrument. The main difference here is that Smith’s melodies and lyrics reveal their greater strength and substance with repeated listens. And make no mistake, the songs do require repeated listens — not just because of Smith’s often whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery, but also because of his deceptively angular melodies and chord progressions, which threaten to float away until the listener hears them enough to latch on and know where they’re going. Its a soft indie-rock album but Smith also shows a lot of his darker side with embittered characters cope with their dysfunctional relationships or breakups through substance abuse, while some of the lyrics read more like angry, defiant punk rants when separated from the music. This self titled album is the blueprint for his later successes. Needle In The Hay and The White Lady Loves You More are exemplary tunes that fuse the Beatles’ pop sense with Neil Young’s sense of doom. Lying in his own burned out basement, Smith can rough up the gentlest love song with a few salty words of choice.

Track list:
1. Needle In The Hay
1. Christian Brothers
2. Clementine
3. Southern Belle
4. Single File
5. Coming Up Roses
6. Satellite
7. Alphabet Town
8. St. Ides Heaven
9. Good To Go
10. The White Lady Loves You More
11. The Biggest Lie