My Top 1000 Songs #833: Son Of Sam

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

I get the sense many/most Elliott Smith loyalists prefer his more intimate, stripped-down work, but I think he shone even brighter when he started giving his songs a more polished, full-band, almost Beatlesque accompaniment. Case in point? "Son Of Sam," from 2000's Figure 8, his final proper studio album before his tragic demise. It's a lush, piano-driven, relatively upbeat rocker, more Rundgren-tinged baroque pop than simple balladry; yet for all the pomp, the noisy guitar solo over busy percussion, Smith's voice doesn't lose any of its spine-tingling purity. And alongside some of his posthumously-released unfinished tracks, it's ample evidence that Smith would have remained a powerful musical force if he'd only overcome his demons.

Live on Conan, 2000: