Pitchfork
January 7, 2010
Link
7
After three discs of posthumous songs, most musicians don't have a whole lot of gold left in the vault. Elliott Smith's spiritual brother in intimate, depressive folk-pop, Nick Drake, made it to one rarities collection before lapsing into mediocrity. John Lennon got one half of a studio album and a couple of barrel-scratching Anthology tracks. Jimi Hendrix, for whatever it's worth, was releasing unreleased songs to some critical acclaim well into the second decade after his death (though I gotta admit I haven't heard many of them). So there's no reason Smith-- who recorded songs constantly, and, judging by some of his latter-career creative choices, wasn't necessarily the best judge of his own talent, anyway-- might not still have a couple of worthwhile recordings that haven't yet found a home.
"Cecilia/Amanda" is one, though it's not exactly greatest-hits material. With bleak but rich imagery that evokes the deadly "party dress" of Elvis Costello's "Alison" almost the way XO's "Baby Britain" turned over Revolver, Smith sings of a damaged female duo and "a place where lonely men pay to make their opposites match." It's still unclear who exactly belongs to whom, but a baby is definitely involved. Remastering by Tape Op editor Larry Crane nicely cleans up the keyboards and acoustic strums from the muddled version that has been floating around for a few years. Given that the tune dates back to Smith's high school band-- he recorded this take with Crane in 1997-- it's a good bet Smith didn't consider it one of his best. You won't need him to tell you that, but you'll be happy to hear another reliably well-constructed folk-pop song from the late singer/songwriter just the same. Even if part of his romantic charm was that he always strived for something more.
