Revising views of Elliot Smith: "It’s a masterly composition that eclipses anything by Smith’s own idols, including the Beatles or Elvis Costello – sad, yes, but too wondrous to feel strictly morose. And he didn’t write it strung out and crying into an empty glass of Jameson. It was apparently knocked into shape while he was watching the swords-and-sandals TV show Xena: Warrior Princess."
The martyring of Elliott Smith
The indie-rock artist’s posthumous status as a “torment saint” is an ill-fitting reputation.
newstatesman.com