The Severed Cortex

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Either-Elliott-Smith/dp/B00000373U/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1209259186&sr=8-4

I'm supposed to really, really like this. And I do to a certain extent, but it really doesn't move me all that much. I mean, I really like Elliott Smith a ton, which is why I bought this to begin with, and everyone seems to think this is his best work, but I think I like others instead. Perhaps I'm just a different kind of fan of Elliott Smith. I really like Basement On A Hill, but most hardcore fans hate this because it's overproduced and finished by someone other than Elliot Smith. ... not that I'm a hardcore Elliott Smith fan.

In fact, I'm typically not a fan of this whole introspective, singer/songwriter, Nick Drake genre, unless of course it's actually Nick Drake, but Elliott Smith draws so much from that same vein that Drake did that I couldn't help but feel compelled to listen to more of his music. The thing that really drew me to Nick Drake was how he poured so much of himself into the song, and Smith does the same. Nick Drake did so with his shyness and mental dysfunction. Smith did so with delicious drugs and mental dysfunction. And as we all know that dysfunction drove both of them to their death. Because of it, and because of people like me writing about it, they will be linked together forever. But what I've really found over the repeated listens is that on occasion Smith sounds like Drake, but more often than not his sound is more derivative of The Beatles. Well, who isn't in some way shape or form, but Smith comes closer to the more complex Beatles stuff than anyone else I know.

While I don't own the entire Elliott Smith catalog (I own roughly half), this one sounds most like Nick Drake to me. It's got such a solitary sound to it that you can't help but feel depressed. I guess if you're dead set on forcing yourself to be depressed, as I sometimes feel like doing, you might as well listen to the highest form of depressing music. It's depressing for sure, but it's also very well played and it's produced to the exact sound it needs, desolate and singular and mumbly. I'd never say this is a bad CD, but it is my least favorite so far. There are several songs that have excellent guitar work in them and all have excellent lyrics, but somehow they just fall short for me. I do like a couple of songs on here. Actually three, Pictures Of Me, Rose Parade, and Say Yes which is kind of the most upbeat number on here. Ha! Upbeat. That's probably not saying much.