Elliott Smith
Roman Candle
Cavity Search, Released 1994
The songs on Roman Candle breathe with a vitality almost never found in such bleak surroundings. Its grey mood saddens the listener, but does so with up-tempo, hook-laden songs. The backbone of it all is intricate acoustic guitar which offers a side of lightness in opposition to the plaintive vocals. The guitar and voice are not so much juxtaposed, but placed together with dependent tension — coaxing emotion out of one another.
There’s so much to grab onto lyrically: personal accusations, place names, simple portraits that will feel so familiar to many of us. The whispering description of a "spooky and withdrawn" boy who looked "like he could be underwater" makes us sad for this boy, makes us wonder if the singer is him, and puts us in the boy’s shoes. "Last Call," five tracks later, finds Smith’s full-voice snarling "you’re a crisis, you’re an icicle, you’re a tongueless talker." Is he talking to me? It feels like it. Is he talking to himself? It seems so — the pronouns turn to first person. Is he entering the body of someone he knows?
It all seems accessible and so near once you’re gathered up in the folds of this album. The starkness of the recording leaves room for the flawless guitar to come through and takes the listener on a dark 30 minute stroll.
www.inkblotmagazine.com/rev-archive/Elliott_Smith_Roman_Candle.htm