I switched the turntable to 45 (this is an annoyance on that old stripped-down NAD of mine, as it involves lifting off the platter to manually move the belt). I opened the package and brought the 7” into my living room. And I’m forever grateful that Elliott Smith empowered me. How could they? Because they were often minor chord whispers in the darkest of the dark? Because he wrote rage-filled screams at those who hurt and abuse? I didn’t, and I don’t, find that sad. What I’m certain of is that even Elliott Smith’s saddest songs never made me feel sad. He was making music for “the sad kids.” Maybe. Mary Lou Lord was fond of saying that Elliott was the new Kurt Cobain, and I guess she’d know as well as anyone.

It was Smith’s first proper release since Figure 8, an interminable three years plus for a dedicated, nerdy fan like me. I was too late each time, until a week or so before. Several times I’d tried to order Elliott Smith’s single “Pretty (Ugly Before)” from the Seattle label.

In among whatever else had arrived was a package from Suicide Squeeze Records. The news that hit my screen very shortly rendered it anything but: Elliott Smith was dead in Los Angeles. On the morning of October 22, 2003, I woke, made coffee, and then plodded over to my computer and started poking around the Internet. This time Chris Drabick ranks Elliott Smith. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. Welcome to Ranked, our recurring series in which one of our writers takes an artist’s catalogue and ranks all of their official studio albums from most essential to least essential.

Elliott smith either or allmusic