I’ve always enjoyed Elliott Smith’s music, but it wasn’t until recently that I actually began to explore his work. I’ve discovered so many songs that I absolutely adore, which has propelled Smith to the list of my favorite artists. Some of the songs I’ve found include:
“Pretty Mary K (Other Version)”
Nestled in his New Moon collection (as are many of the songs listed in this article), “Pretty Mary K (Other Version)” is a gentle and beautiful gem. It is indescribably comforting, in a way, even though it is full of heartache; Smith paints loneliness and broken attempts to communicate so well…
“Alameda”
Again, Smith here captures the difficulty of communication. Here, you feel the truth of Mikhail Bakhtin’s belief that all communication is translation, but from a tragic standpoint: misinterpretation is inevitable and constant, and the ultimate inability to entirely convey one’s own deep feelings to another can make you feel like there is a yawning chasm between you and the other person.
“Go By”
This song has a dreamlike quality to it. The speaker is so wrapped up in his thoughts that he seems divorced from reality; everything in the external world becomes jarring and ultimately feels fruitless. The world “goes by,” rushing onward, as he remains in something of a trance.
“Sweet Adeline”
I love the way Smith uses the acoustic guitar in this song: there is something about the pattern of the notes, the form of the song, that beautifully conveys the content. The anxiously descending notes perfectly communicate the feeling of the pain that the speaker explores in the song.
“Going Nowhere”
This song feels like when you sit alone on the floor of your room after crying hard, standing outside in the dark listening to the leaves rustle, walking to class on a cold, windy day — it is the poetry of the intense moment, in which you seem to exist more fully, when everything somehow feels more sharply palpable and real.