Day 0857 - Either/Or

Elliott Smith "Either/Or" (1997)

Well I'm an idiot.  I had Elliott Smith totally confused with pop singer Sam Smith (I mean Smith isn't really a common name, right?).   I'd seen this CD in my wife's music collection and I was like "kind of surprised she's into that Sam Smith guy".   When this came up on the list and I actually listened to the album I realised that it was awesome and nothing like Sam Smith.

Smith's (Elliott's) sound here is a really stripped-down singer-songwriter vibe.  His voice is light and gentle over tracks that are often just acoustic guitar, with drums and bass only occasionally coming into the picture.

"Angeles" is largely just acoustic guitar and voice with some subtle keyboard in places.  "No Name No.5" with its droney sitar-esque acoustic guitar and big thumping bass drums in places remind me of a mellower take on the classic Soundgarden sound.   "Cupid's Trick" adds a little more texture and even some rock to it.

The music seems somehow really familiar to me but I can't really place it.  Like I feel that maybe it has hints of Chris Cornell, Jeff Buckley and Eleven (it does have that descending melodic patterns and contrasting descending/ascending vocal/guitar thing going on in places) but it's much quieter and more intimate than that.  Maybe I'm just picking up on that '60s sounds through a cynical 90s filter' thing that some of those other artists also employed.   The songs also bring to mind Ween's folkier moments and Liam Finn's solo material.

A few songs from the album were featured in the film "Good Will Hunting" which brought Smith a bit more recognition.   Sadly, he died 5 or 6 years later after being stabbed twice in the chest.  The coroner could not confirm if it was suicide or homicide

Day 0735 - Wild Wood

Paul Weller "Wild Wood" (1993)

Weller had already made a decent contribution to the British music world, having been part of the Jam and the Style Council.  That latter band's star began to wane, until their record label refused to release their last album and the band disbanded.

After taking a year or so off music, Weller toured for a while as 'the Paul Weller Movement' which allowed him to revisit some of the catalogue of his two bands as well as showcasing some new music.  This tour was followed by a self-titled solo album.

With his solo career up and running, Paul released his second album 'Wild Wood.  It almost feels like a compendium of late 60s/early 70s sounds, with hints of Beatles-esque pop, Neil Young rock, Bowie glam and even a touch of Hendrix funk with a few bits of electronic/studio trickery thrown in on occasion to give the music that point of difference from its influences.

It's another one of those albums where I think any one of these songs in isolation would be an enjoyable listen, but for some reason, each time I listened through the album (4 or so times) my interest would wane by the last quarter.

Day 0462 - Crocodiles

Echo and the Bunnymen "Crocodiles" (1980)

Echo and the Bunnymen: the 80s-ness continues.

I have their album "Ocean Rain" which had a kind of atmospheric, gothic somnambulism to it and I really liked it... however, I'm glad that they sound different here, because variety is the spice of life.

This is much more a dark and jangly album with a definite post-punk  flavour, though still with hints of what their sound would become.