May

4

2007

Elliott Smith - New Moon

Posted by luna6

krs4552.jpg
Artist : Elliott Smith
Album : New Moon
Release Date : May 08, 2007
Label : Kill Rock Stars
Free Downloads : High Times
Rating : 5.5
Users Rating: 7.8 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (5 votes)

Loading ... Loading …


Obviously “New Moon” by Elliott Smith wouldn’t be a batch of “new songs” from Mr. Heatmiser. Neither would it be material from his post Figure 8 days, because we already have “From A Basement On The Hill” to fill that void. Rather “New Moon” is mostly unreleased material from Elliott Smith’s Kill Rock Stars period of 1994-1997 (“Elliott Smith” and “Either Or”). I’ll go on record to say that I was never as blown away by “Elliott Smith” as I was of “Either Or.” I do feel quite fortunate having the good fortune of seeing Elliott Smith play live, which would have been during his “XO” tour. One of the most memorable moments I had at a live performance would be hearing Elliott Smith perform “Ballad Of Big Nothing” live. As great as the song is on CD, when Elliot Smith performed that song live with an electric guitar and a full band, the song was just out of this world. Yet this review isn’t about Elliott Smith live or “Either Or” its about his second posthumously released album “New Moon.”

To be upfront the unreleased material collected on “New Moon” are fairly unremarkable songs, where if I didn’t know it was Elliott Smith and if I wasn’t familiar with his voice, I wouldn’t really think twice about most of the songs on this record. Not to take anything away from Elliott Smith’s legacy, but rather, the moral of the “New Moon” story may be that sometimes there is a simple reason that songs are never completed or released. Occasionally you will come across some nice melodies, like on “New Monkey” or “Whatever (Folk Song in C),” but more often than not the songs here meander along, sounding a lot like…well outtakes. While going through the album, I did hold out hope there would be an unreleased gem somewhere in this 24 song collection, but unfortunately they were few and far between. Even the early version of “Miss Misery” sounded remarkably flat, stripped of the flair that the recorded version found on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack had. The one gem I did find on the record would have been Elliott Smith’s cover of Big Star’s “Thirteen.” That song packs the emotional wallop where you have to take a deep breath in admiration. Even with that stated, if you have some of Elliott Smith’s live bootlegs, you are probably already familiar with that song and may think the live performance is even better.

Certainly Elliott Smith was one of the more talented songwriters of his generation, but unfortunately there’s not a lot of that greatness to be found on “New Moon.” Most of these songs are unremarkable tunes that were probably unreleased or unfinished for a good reason by Elliott Smith. To hear a master at the top of his craft look no further than XO or Either Or. There’s just not much to find interesting on “New Moon” except for the most ardent of Elliott Smith collectors.

buy it from
Elliott Smith - New Moon

Track Listing:
01. Angel in the Snow
02. Talking to Mary
03. High Times
04. New Monkey
05. Looking Over My Shoulder
06. Going Nowhere
07. Riot Coming
08. All Cleaned Out
09. First Timer
10. Go By
11. Miss Misery (early version)
12. Thirteen
13. Georgia, Georgia
14. Whatever (Folk Song in C)
15. Big Decision
16. Placeholder
17. New Disaster
18. Seen How Things Are Hard
19. Fear City
20. Either/Or
21. Pretty Mary K (other version)
22. Almost Over
23. See You Later
24. Half Right

[Slashdot] [Digg] [Reddit] [del.icio.us] [Facebook] [Technorati] [Google] [StumbleUpon]

Etc. |

Comments

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Leave a response

2 Comments so far

  1. 2 sean Says: June 30, 2007

    It’s wonderful having one more go-around with
    Elliott Smith’s creations. I miss him…

  2. 1 Mark Says: June 28, 2007

    Nice album, nice website:
    http://elliott-smith-new-moon.info/