FROM A BASEMENT ON THE HILL - Elliott Smith

just looking in the mirror will make you a brave man.

i clicked 'little one' instinctively but on second thoughts it might have to be 'memory lane'.

also i PM'd you, flappy

aand i may have forgot to include a return address but my email is thecryingnook at gmail.

tt showed this to me as her favourite album ever p much, and i agree it is amazing, but i don't think it gets any more amazing than the opening track (or don't go down, so i will have to make a choice)

“memory lane”

Great song... this live version from 1997 has a more resigned, wistful twist on the main melody that I prefer (despite the awful quality of this recording)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=742G71nUnnA

xp I'll check my email meaulnes!

my audio engineering ears sleuth that the above recording was never originally that bad sounding. most people would have it down as a low bit rate mp3, but it very much sounds as though it's been subject to some awful spectral noise-reduction process where the frequencies of the guitar and vocal have been extracted. it gives a kind of ghostly quality i guess, but i think i'd rather hear it under a bed of noise.

yeah it's a problem with a lot of ES bootlegs

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little one

I wish I was more familiar with this one.

Don't Go Down tho

Voted for 'A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free' - but gotta say the 45 version (some different lyrics/mix) kicks the LP version's ass.

that one might actually be on the only dud on here, I never liked it... I've come around on Pretty Ugly Before (that 45 was the first ES I heard, those songs and Speed Trials made me wait almost a decade before trying again)

he verges into self parody sometimes, often on opening lines... "I'm floating in a black balloon" and "I have become a silent movie" ... "amity amity amity amity amity"

but then there's something brilliant like "everything is gone but the echo of the burst of a shell" or "the lite brite's now black and white"

Voted for the (first) single.

“Distorted”

Voting Pretty (Ugly Before) because it's such a perfect little tune, I love that Big Star-style riff he throws in, and it's a good mix of optimism and soul crushing self-loathing.

Otm. Love that little piano lick on the chorus

Voted for the closer. Devastating.

Voted for 'A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free' - but gotta say the 45 version (some different lyrics/mix) kicks the LP version's ass.

same

my favorite has always been "a fond farewell," but "memory lane" and "king's crossing" are close behind.

strong agree that the 7" version of "distorted" is superior.

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I don’t even remember voting in this poll but I probably voted for Twilight.

as long as we're talking ES + as long as i mentioned "king's crossing," this live version is the definitive one for me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiBTykpkT9E

so good

and nearly 4 years later, another incredible performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D7vRObaTyo

all other live versions of King's Crossing I've heard are really shaky performance wise