The Smiley Smile Message Board

...great talent, left the planet early. I only have 'XO' and rediscovered that just these days. And: 'Figure Eight' is available in the sales now for a bargain basement micro-stash of cash. Should I invest?

Yes.

Figure 8 is more commercial/louder than XO and maybe not quite as good, but still good nonetheless. If you don't like it you can always sell it.  IMO, anything Elliot Smith did is worth hearing.

Elliott Smith.

XO is my third favorite album of all time, right after Pet Sounds and BWPS. Figure 8 is a very decent album but not nearly as good as XO.

Thanks guys! -
XO 'crept up' on me unexpectedly. It had faded a bit out of my active consciousness and is returning there. The comparison with Pet Sounds above isn't far-fetched... I once bought PS on the recommendation of my then favourite music mag. After a few spins I thought: 'OK, the opening tracks of side 1 and 2 are pretty good... and I thought nowt much else. Boy, was I wrong about those 11 other songs... PS is my all time favourite, and in second place are 'BWPS', and/or a purely mental exercise with all that's left from the original SMiLE sessions.
'Song Cycle' is #3, 'Discover America' # 4.
For the sake of precision and properly reasoned qualification/quantification, I see no records at spots 5 to 20 in my list. And at #21 the ranking continuous with some King Tubby and Television.

Elliott Smith is one of my favourite songwriters.

"Either/Or" is also fantastic, and you should definitely check out "From A Basement On The Hill" and "New Moon" as well.

What a real talent, and what a great loss, couldn't believe my ears when I heard of his death a couple of years ago. So sad.  :'(

He always played a lot of Beatles, Lennon, Harrison, Zombies, Big Star, Dylan, Kinks etc. covers (and he didn't pick the obvious choices!) during his gigs, there are some very nice boots circulating.

And should you be interested in digging even deeper, check out the albums he made with his band Heatmiser.

Did anyone else notice how Baby Britain is a COMPLETE rip off of The Beatles' Getting Better?  :)

Yep, he never made a secret of his love for The Beatles, especially "The White Album". He also covered "Because".

A lot of Fab Four influences on "XO" and "Figure 8".

Figure 8 by far is his best. IMO. The production (with a lot of Jon Brion's help) and big arrangements make these songs more developed and far more expanded than his other material. His pre-Either/OR stuff isn't great to me....

Figure 8 fans need to get the songs Figure 8 and I Can't Answer You Anymore. They are really great songs and a little better than the weaker tracks on the album.

Both are full-productions and were recorded for the album and were left off on B-sides. They fit perfectly on the album and definitely should have been on there. They aren't demos.

If you like ES, I'd suggest checking out this new book:

http://www.amazon.com/Elliott-Smith-Autumn-Wilde/dp/0811857999/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196983596&sr=1-1

Many great photos by famed photog Autumn de Wilde, tons of interviews w/ ES friends, musicians, etc.  Very cool.

That's the weird thing about Elliott Smith's music. Some fans think Figure 8 is his best album, some say it's XO, some say it's Either/Or, some say it's the first two... But the one thing that all Elliott Smith fans seem to agree on is that their favorite album is by far his best album...