Elliott Smith is an overlooked musician, and here’s why.
Steven Paul Smith, better known as Elliott Smith, was an indie rock artist from 1991-2003 when he passed from what is speculated to be suicide. Smith released 5 studio albums, and he was working on a sixth album before his death, which was released posthumously in 2004.
Smith was originally in a band called Heatmiser. He pursued his solo career while still in the band and eventually left in 1996 after the success of his first 3 albums; Roman Candle (1994), Elliott Smith (1995), and Either/Or (1997), my personal favorite. After he split from his band, he released XO (1998) and Figure 8 (2000). The background of Figure 8’s album cover contains an iconic wall located in Los Angeles, California. An album he had been working on, From a Basement on the Hill was released after his death.
Elliott Smith has 2.6 million listeners on Spotify as of today. In December 2020 it was 2.5 million. So as you can see, it’s a small increase during a long period. His most streamed song is Behind The Bars with 157 million streams. The streams on his other songs are well below that, never going above 67 million.
I asked around twelve people if they knew who Elliot Smith was, but only three of them did. Although he won an award for one of his songs, he’s not very well known to the general public. I think that people who are fans of artists such as Alex G, Nirvana, and Radiohead, would quite enjoy Elliott Smith; I know I like all of those artists.
As I write this, I realize that the statistics may make it seem like he’s commonly known, but as I’ve learned, he’s really not known by the general public, or at least the people I have met.
Elliott Smith’s songwriting is one of the greatest of the past three decades, but most overlooked by the idea that he’s just another sad, throw-away, indie artist. As I’ve written this article, I’ve listened to his album Either/Or at least 5 times. I’ve also taken up learning 2:45 AM on guitar as well. If you’re looking to discover a great, yet underrated artist, Elliott Smith is the one for you.