Roman Candle
Roman Candle
Kill Rock Stars is proud to re-issue Roman Candle, Elliott Smith’s first solo album, originally released on Portland’s Cavity Search Records in 1994. Roman Candle is now remastered for the re-release by Roger Seibel (SAE) and Larry Crane, editor of Tape Op Magazine and archivist for Elliott’s family. Roman Candle had quite an impact on Slim Moon, Kill Rock Stars’founder: “In 1994, I had been asked to be on this five-person solo-act tour called Pop Chord with Tammy Watson, Carrie Akre, Sean Croghan and Elliott Smith. The first night at the Crocodile in Seattle, I didn’t pay too much attention and people talked all thru Elliott’s set. Sean Croghan got up next and said “all of you people who just talked through Elliott’s set are bummed because you just missed something very, very special.” The next night of the tour, at The Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco, I listened very closely to Elliott’s set, and it was basically one of those lifechanging moments. Instead of watching the rest of
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A solid debut album from an underappreciated artist,
I’m going to split this review into two parts, with the first being a review of the album itself and the second being a comparison between the original release and this remastered version.
This album seems to get lost in the discussions of Elliott Smith’s work, mainly due to how strong his subsequent albums were. But there are two tracks on this album – Roman Candle and Last Call – that by themselves make this a classic album in the indie rock world. Most of Elliott’s songs have lyrics that leave them open to interpretation. Not these two. His feelings towards his abusive stepfather are very evident on Roman Candle – “I want to hurt him, I want to give him pain”. Last Call is his goodbye cruel world song and is one of the more depressing songs you will ever hear – “I wanted her to tell me she would never wake me”. Both songs linger with you after they are done playing.
The other tracks on this album aren’t as strong, but there is still good stuff here. Kiwi Maddogg 20/20 is one of my favorite instrumentals – great guitar work on this one. Condor Ave and No Name #3 are my other favorites on this album. The remaining tracks all sound somewhat similar, and are all good enough to listen to. There are no tracks on this album I would consider filler. Supposedly Elliott made this album just to get a record deal, and had to be convinced by the recording company to release it. I am glad they did – this is a great album with some phenomenal songs.
Now on to the second part, the remastered version. The original album was recorded in the basement of Elliott’s girlfriend using less than top of the line equipment, and it showed. There is a background hiss present, and on some of the tracks (especially Roman Candle) the guitars squeak loud enough to make you cringe if you are wearing headphones. In some odd way that contributed to the overall charm of the album – it was raw and not overproduced and glitzy like so many modern albums. I was concerned the remastered edition would take away some of that feeling.
I am happy to say the remastered edition is a nice improvement over the original. If anything it doesn’t go far enough. The background hiss, especially on Last Call, is still very evident. The guitar squeaks are still there, but they have been dulled down to the point where they don’t detract from the listening experience as they did on the original release. The songs sound as though they have been normalized, or at least had the volume raised. I am glad the people in charge of this did not go overboard and change the overall feel of the music as Elliott feared would happen (he allegedly threatened to destroy the master tapes of his recordings to prevent this). This remastered version has subtle but appreciated changes and is worth getting in my opinion.
Overall this is a great album, one of my all time favorites. If you like this album you’ll definitely want to check out his second album, as many of the songs on there have a similar sound.
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