Laces Out Dan!

Some of my favourite songwriting is from Either/Or and XO. But all in all I think Figure 8 is my favourite album. Well, tie between XO and F8.

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FaSho

I have Figure 8, XO either/Or and his S/T, and I find that lyrically XO is his best, but musically it's the S/T.

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sleepy jack

Really? The only thing more minimalistic than his self-titled is Roman Candle. It's just chords and in the case of Needle in the Hay, St. Ides Heaven and others, really simple chords.

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Sneer

I love his later baroque pop work, but i have to agree with Fasho here, musically this appeals to me a lot more, nobody does acoustic like Elliott

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seasick

Elliott Smith was the first musician to make me cry. Thus, he is very dear to me. I love how he has that desperation/urgency seeping out of his voice when he sings. Genuis.

sweet_nothing

I'd say musically his best were his later albums but I think that came with better production.

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simplephysics

Yea, the switch to dreamworks really helped. I think his s/t plays really well together between the content of his lyrics and the simple lo-fi feel to the music. Songs like St. Ides Heaven wouldn't feel appropriate if they were backed by a full band. I loved XO, and am a little biased toward Figure 8, but I still think it's brilliant album.

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sweet_nothing

I rarley put on XO or Figure 8, I really think he was at his best with the lo fi simple stuff.

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FaSho

I agree. I said his S/T was musically better, because he just doesn't sound right to me when the instrumentation becomes more complicated.

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ProggyMan

More complicated it may be, but I don't see how that doesn't 'sound right' or whatever. His greatest talents are melody and harmony and those are brought to the forefront on his later albums.