Elliot Smith - New Moon

Elliot Smith gave no thought to irrelevancies like albums, or running orders. He just wrote, and recorded, and wrote, and recorded, and when his bosses wanted an LP to release he handed them his latest efforts. New Moon is 24 tracks that didn't make the grade between 1994-1997, a fact that should put lesser songwriters to shame. His hushed voice and melancholic melodies are often breathtakingly beautiful, such as on Going Nowhere, Go By, Half Right, and the Big Star cover, Thirteen. On the other hand, some tracks were rightly discarded by Smith, and lead to the thought that a single-disc compilation would have been far stronger overall – but that's not how hungry fans would have seen it. For the casual Elliot Smith fan, New Moon is frequently moving, and always enlightening - for loyal followers, it's simply essential. [Ally Brown]