Elliot Smith: Figure 8 (2000)-Ethan Smith
Elliott Smith: Figure 8 (2000)
By Ethan Smith
Now to start this review off I’m going to go into a short rant. This album was critically panned as soon as it was released and still is today. I don’t understand this, this is Elliott Smith’s final album (From a Basement on the Hill really wasn’t seeing as it was essentially a post-humus compilation) and I think he just got better and better with each release. This album is slightly inaccessible in the sense that it’s a grower while his other albums just tend to click or don’t but I don’t think that’s a reason to call it “A grizzled old bastard whining for your parents” (Yes, I’m looking at you Pitchfork).
This album shows Elliott putting the DreamWorks money to good use creating that big production pop album he always wanted.
The album opens up with the very fun and very Beatlesy “Son of Sam”, something not too similar to anything he’s done before which sets the general theme for the rest of the album. Elliott like on XO shows his love for the piano as well as his ability to create haunting songs on them; “Everything Means Nothing to Me” is a definite stand out track. While this album incorporates new things Elliott still stays true to his acoustic roots with songs like “Somebody I Use to Know” and “Everything Reminds Me of Her.”
Though at times the album does seem messy, it seems like Elliott got a bit excited and tried to do 50 things at once and experiment and is that really such a bad thing?
Not counting his posthumous stuff, Figure 8 is probably the most varied Elliott Smith album ever and while he wasn’t quite at his creative peak he was still damn close and this album hints at all the talent to come that the world sadly will never see in its completion.
Figure 8 could be the most critically bashed Elliott Smith album ever, but I think if people throw aside their pre-conceived biases and give the album a chance they’ll not only find one of the greatest albums he ever did, but an album that could be called his masterpiece.
March 1st, 2008 at 9:01 pm
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