elliott smith
The 90 Greatest Albums of the ’90s
This article originally appeared in the September 1999 issue of SPIN. “You must be high.” We heard that a lot during the time we spent preparing this issue. Which is understandable. Pronouncing the 90 greatest albums of the ’90s is a somewhat presumptuous thing to do. When you’re measuring the music this decade is offering to history—the sounds we partied with, copulated to, fought about, and wept over—everyone has an opinion. That ours should be more valid than yours is debatable. But hey—it’s our magazine. What, then, you ask, constitutes “greatest”? Don’t even start. Suffice it to say that, after much heated discussion and countless veiled insults, it came down to the factors of both remarkable artistry and cultural shock value. Sometimes a record’s knock-you-off-your-Skechers impa...
The 50 Best Alt-Rock Love Songs
Not all love songs are romantic. Not all love songs are even happy. It all depends on your definition of the term. For every “My Girl” or “Your Song,” there’s at least one track with a nuanced take on the darker, more complicated sides of love — the drama of a long-term relationship, the fear of losing a partner, the void left in love’s wake. Many of those songs fall under the admittedly broad umbrella of “alt-rock.” So to mark Valentine’s Day, we decided to gather 50 of our favorite “love songs” in the genre — both conventional and otherwise. Throughout this list, you’ll find lines about blooming romance and marital bliss. You’ll also find nods to drug addiction and car crashes. There’s something for everyone. – Ryan Reed 50. that dog. – “I’m Gonna See You” You take the good, you tak...
The 25 Best Soundtrack Albums of the 1990s
In the 1980s, music and film collided for cross-promotional blockbusters both transcendent (Purple Rain) and transcendently cheesy (Footloose). In the ‘90s, soundtracks continued to sell in the millions, capturing cultural moments like the Seattle grunge of Singles or the Britpop and electronica of Trainspotting. Auteurs like Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson reached deep into their record collections to set the mood while movies like Above the Rim and Menace II Society pioneered the concept of soundtracks as hip-hop mixtapes. A great soundtrack can propel an unsuccessful single, like Seal’s “Kiss From A Rose,” to the top of the charts, or revive a decades-old hit, like Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It can also push a cult singer-songwriter like Elliott Smith or Aimee Mann to an Oscar perf...
MAITA Covers Elliott Smith’s ‘Coming Up Roses’
Elliott Smith’s self-titled debut album will be reissued for its 25th anniversary in August. And with it, comes not only a remastered version and a previously unreleased live album, but an imaginative cover from Portland’s MAITA. The DIY-inspired act, which dropped their debut album in April, has a soothing sound that mirrors that of Smith, and gives the track some additional punchy harmonies toward the end. With Maria Maita-Keppeler on vocals, MAITA gives fans of Smith — who lived in Portland for much of his life — something to be proud of. “Elliott Smith’s music has been a part of both [guitarist] Matthew [Zeltzer]’s and my life for years — our connection to Elliott’s music was one of the first musical commonalities we found, and continues to be a touchstone,” she says of the releas...
Listen to Elliott Smith’s ‘Some Song’ From Early Solo Performance
An expanded 25th-anniversary edition of Elliott Smith’s self-titled is on the way, and as we previously mentioned, there’s a disc of one of the earliest known recordings of him performing as a solo artist from September 1994. Today, “Some Song” from that Portland set has emerged and precedes even the 7-inch release of it from January 1995. In its earliest known form, the acoustic tune is soft and intimate. “There are fan-traded MP3s out there of this show, but when people hear what I was able to extract from this original tape, they’ll be shocked,” producer/engineer Larry Crane — the official archivist for the Smith family — said in a statement. Crane has been digging through the archives for this release. The album is out on Aug. 28 via Kill Rock Stars. Listen to the song below. [embedded...
