Roman Candle

就像很多有天赋的音乐家一样，Elliott Smith在西北的一些州开始了他的音乐生涯：不可避免的在一些蹩脚的乐队里度过了一些日子。然而，Smith的特长并不是作为一个乐队的乐手。在Portland的酒吧中做完一些乱七八糟的演奏之后，他带着他的吉他回到后台，轻轻的给自己吟唱一些安静的歌曲。 这张专辑是他首次尝试录制的歌曲，这些歌曲很好的捕捉了当时的感觉：一个从喧闹的紧张的生活中撤退下来的孤独的灵魂，在音乐的孤独中寻找安慰。《Roman Candle》实际上是用地下室的四轨录音座录制的。Smith演奏了所有的乐器。他曾经说过当人们认为他的音乐所表达的是一种伤心的感情时，他总是觉得很吃惊，因为演奏这些音乐常常使他感到开心。你可以从那些轻轻跳跃的音调中听到隐含的喜悦和安静的和谐（这使人想起Simon &Garfunkel）。但是他的歌词还是常常会透露出一些颓唐的依赖毒品的生活，尽管他正在远离这种生活。这些歌词中都隐含一些智慧，充满对于分裂的疏远的都市人生活的不满。（转自 华声论坛）

by Darryl Cater

Elliott Smith began his career like most aspiring musicians in the Northwestern states: putting in the requisite hours in a grunge band. Being a team player, however, is not Smith's forte. After those buzzy shows in the bars of Portland, OR, he would retreat backstage with his acoustic guitar and whisper his own quiet songs to himself. This album is his first attempt to record those songs, and they capture that feeling perfectly: a loner retreating from the noisy tension of life with others, finding solace in musical solitude. Roman Candle was, in fact, recorded in solitude on a four-track in a basement. Smith played all the instruments himself. He has said that he's always surprised when people call his songs "sad," because playing them always made him happy. You can hear that reclusive joy in the light bounce of the melodies and hushed harmonies (which recall Simon & Garfunkel). But his lyrics are haunted by the downbeat, drug-addled life from which he was retreating. For all their cryptic cleverness, there is a restless unhappiness in his fragmented stories of alienated urbanites. After that description, a reference to the definitive folk loner, Nick Drake, is inevitable. Smith's whispery vocals and able fingerpicking deserve the comparison. The highlight of Roman Candle is the title track. The quietly driving acoustic guitars and threatening bass create a disturbing portrait of a human time bomb, barely containing a seething and simmering undercurrent of bitterness. The rest of the album, by comparison, is pure sunlight.