This blog entry was originally posted on my portfolio website located here. I decided this is perfect material for Serve The Song, as Elliot Smith is held closely to the hearts of so many lovers of well-written music.

What more can I say about Elliott Smith?  I consider him to be the best songwriter of our time.  It’s an absolute tragedy that we lost such a natural talent.  He left behind a remarkable but sadly incomplete body of work that receives constant play in my listening rotation.

Obviously, narrowing it down to one outstanding album is a tough task.  Figure 8 is the record that touches all the bases of Smith’s style – Melody driven arrangements, intimate and mellow acoustic numbers, fleshed out rock productions, and of course- lyric sets that speak strait to the soul.

Great thanks to my brother, Jeff, who turned me on to Elliott Smith a couple years ago when he played me his self-titled album.  I must say that album was a very close second choice as it contains some of his best works.  But that’s the thing about Elliot Smith — it doesn’t matter which album you hear first, within a matter of two weeks you will have your hands on the entire catelog (at least that was the case for me).

On Figure 8, Smith took his signature production style of doubling all guitars and vocals and translated it to a full rock band sound.  This expanding of his sound occured on previoius albums, but was really perfect on Figure 8.  The electric side of Elliott Smith makes itself known right from the album opener, “Son of Sam” and continues the roller coaster ride all the way to the anthemic “Pretty Mary K”.  The piano work on this album adds brilliant color to the musical landscape of Figure 8 – the way it seamlessly threads between rhythmic chord punches and matching the melody of the vocals.

The intimacy of hearing Smith alone with an acoustic guitar remains intact on “Somebody That I Used To Know”.  It’s certainly a departure from the rest of the album, but it completes the dynamic range nicely.  It was almost left off of the final track list.  Good choice in leaving it in guys.

One of my all-time favorite Smith songs happens at cut three, “Junk Bond Trader”.  Elliott Smith tunes aren’t categorized as driving music very often, but “Junk Bond Trader” has caused me to miss highway exits on several occasions.  Something about the way the second verse kicks in gives me goosebumps every time – “Now I’m a policeman directing traffic, keepin everything moving, everything static”.  Not so much the message, but the way his singing rolls perfectly along with the pulse.

Another track that always stands out on the first listen is “In The Lost and Found”.  This could be the coolest honky-tonk piano playing I’ve ever heard, which makes for the most infectious tune on the album.  Lots of layered vocal harmonies going on here, along with the dramatic low string arrangements that are present throughout the album.

A couple notes on the recording of this album… three songs were done at Abbey Road Studios which might explain the very Beatlesque feel of “Pretty Mary K” and others.  In fact, Elliott played the same piano used by the Beatles when recording “Fool on the Hill”.  Figure 8 was produced by Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf who both produced Elliott Smith’s other albums, Either/Or and XO.

Elliott Smith certainly left us a gem with Figure 8, his last complete work before his death.  As a songwriter, I’m constantly drawing on this release for inspiration and often find myself doubting I will ever be able to acheive a fraction of the greatness on this album.  That’s fine with me, as long as Elliott Smith’s music continues to be loved and appreciated for decades to come.

Sometimes a great song can surround and swallow you up in all of its sounds and colors. Using creative instrumentation and serving your song with melodies that fit right into place with one another are a great way to achieve this effect on your listeners.

We often hear a complete melody or phrase without realizing the sound is composed with more than one instrument or voice. The instruments are similar in tone, and their parts blend nicely into one another.

The key is to piece together the different parts in a way that makes room for one another while keeping the flow of the musical phrase intact. That could mean using counter rhythms — one instrument plays while the other is on a rest. Or it could mean playing simultaneously and blending them together using harmonies and varying aggressiveness. Or using mixing techniques — EQ, volume and effects levels. Most likely, you would use a combination of all of these.

How do we accomplish this type of composition? It’s usually not as methodical as I just described above. More often you stumble upon the perfect fusing of parts through jamming with band-mates, layering parts one at a time while self-producing, or fiddling with knobs and faders in the studio.

The most important thing to keep in mind while you’re knee-deep in the writing process, is to let the song dictate what it wants. Keep your focus locked into the groove of this specific phrase and let that be the road map for where to place your notes. Always remember that adding notes to a melody can often be just as important as adding rests. Check out this article describing the importance of using space in songwriting.

This sound is very common in Hip Hop because it’s all about fusing various sampled sounds to form a unique sounding beat.  The samples are often very far apart in sound, tone, and color but when done right, they are crafted in such a way that new musical phrases are born.

Below are a couple of songs where this technique can be heard:

Parallel Universe – Red Hot Chili Peppers
These guys are the funk-rock masters. This song is all about Flea and Frusciante locking in their picking as they match eachother rhythm, but play different notes in harmony.

Ghostwriter – RJD2
You can hear what I’m talking about in just about any track from RJD2, but this one is among my favorites. It’s off the amazing Dead ringer album and it fuses some funky clean electric guitar sounds with a booming horn line creating an instrumental hook with a ton of impact.

Colorbars – Elliot Smith
This off of the amazing Figure 8 album (reviewed here on my other blog). The acoustic guitar outlines the impact notes played by the piano in a beautifully colorful way as it is done all over this album and the rest of Smith’s full-band work.