New Moon
New Moon
Disc One: 01. Angel In The Snow From the Jan/Feb 1995 sessions at Leslie Uppinghouse’s home studio that yielded much of the S/T record. Elliott’s mix appeared on a CD that came with Mike McGonigal’s magazine, Yeti: Volume I. 02. Talking to Mary From the 1995 sessions at Leslie’s. This is Elliott’s rough mix as the master tape is sadly missing. 03. High Times From the 1995 sessions at Leslie’s. An early working title was “Coma Kid”. The “drums” are really just doubled snare (with the throw off loose) and ride cymbal. 04. New Monkey From sessions for Either/Or. The “bar” was certainly La Luna in Portland, with “the millions of fans ignoring the bands.” 05. Looking Over My Shoulder From sessions for Either/Or. The title of this song is not certain. 06. Going Nowhere From sessions for Either/Or. Due to the limits of eight tracks you rarely get bass guitar on these sessions unless it is integral to the arrangement. One of the most haunting songs in this collection. 07. Riot
List Price: $ 18.98
Our Price:
Pink, Pink Moon,
If EITHER/OR, ELLIOTT SMITH & XO are his best albums, I’d say NEW MOON is 4th in line. Longtime fans, need no persuading, but this probably isn’t the best place to start. This is after all, an over-generous collection of outtakes. True, they lack the Brian Wilson-like arrangements of his last 3 albums. But the lo-fi quality here is far from sub-par. Without a doubt, the folks at KRS put this together with love & care.
For my money, Smith was undoubtedly, one of the finest songwriters to emerge from the mid 90′s. In terms of angst & heartache, he all too quietly pulled the rug out from under Kurt Cobain. Suffice it to say, all the songs here are terrific. Vintage Elliott Smith. Catchy Beatleseque hooks, intimate vocals. Audio butterscotch. Smith’s unique playing style is on full display, especially on “Seen How Things Are Hard”.
Recorded between 1994-97, Smith was probably wise to leave these songs off his official releases. Not because the the songs were bad. But one gets the sense that his best albums would have been less so with their inclusion. Fortunately for fans, they all work so well together here. Sequencing is half the battle on things like this & folks here have done a fine job. Nothing feels particularly thrown together last minute.
Highlights include, the fragile, “Angel In The Snow” and the bleak, “All Cleaned Out”. The early version of “Pretty Mary K” outshines its eventual incarnation on FIGURE 8. And it’s nice to finally hear the title track of “Either/Or”. Oddly enough, the last 2 tracks (“See You Later” and “Half Right”) act as more of a fitting fond farewell than nearly all of FROM A BASEMENT ON THE HILL.
Like much of Smith’s classic work, alot of the songs herein evoke a similar mood to that found on Nick Drake’s PINK MOON. Comparison between Smith and Drake has never been much of a stretch though The Beatles have been cited as a major influence.
While somewhat underrated, BASEMENT felt a little stitched together and ghoulish but MOON organically captures Smith at the height of his powers. Though, there’s nothing here that particlualy sheds any new light, Smith always excelled at leaving you wanting more. Well, here you go.
An essential glance back at what we all miss.
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a masterpiece,
Many (but not all) of these songs have been circulating on the internet for the last several years, raising the question of whether or not this album is worth the purchase price. The answer is an unqualified yes. Having heard rough cuts of many of these songs, my jaw hit the floor when I heard how beautifully they’ve been remastered. The songs sparkle and gleam, and hidden complexities of Smith’s virtuouso guitar work leap melodically forth from this stupendous collection.
The often-unaccompanied singing/guitar work of these songs most nearly recalls the work on his self-titled album. These are not second-rate tunes that were dredged up for release – some of these songs are as good as anything he released during his tragically-short career. “Angel in the Snow”, “Looking Over My Shoulder”, and “Georgia, Georgia” are immediate standouts that will surely join the top ranks of his corpus.
This is a magnificent parting gift from one of the greatest musical minds of his generation, and an absolute treasure.
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He was a gift, and a gifted man,
Perhaps only Elliott Smith could generate an album’s worth of “outtakes” and “rarities” that stand alongside even his most powerful work. At worst, New Moon is graceful. At its best, it’s mesmerizing. The more I listen to this album, the more I think no one quite comes close to his balance of restraint, passion, intimacy, and splashes of baroque intensity. Not Samuel Beam, not David Gray, and certainly not the chronically overwrought Damien Rice. I think only Sufjan Stevens is on this level. And Smith didn’t even think this stuff worthy of an album! The mind reels.
Gorgeous guitar work, the classic doubled vocals (sometimes harmonized, even)… the “right beside you” sound is arresting at times. Ironically, the strength of this album *as* an album is the variety, where before Smith’s releases were each notably unified in tone; this sometimes pushed his work to the brink of homogeneity.
This guy was a folkie for the 21st Century. Like any great posthumous release, New Moon celebrates his strengths, over and over again. If there were any doubts, I think this one seals the deal. It’s a keeper. It is quite unfortunate that the source of his genius was also apparently the source of his greatest darkness.
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