ELLIOTT SMITH

Either/Or (1997)

Writing about the US singersongwriter’s third album Either/ Or for observer.com, Ron Hart identified “a sweet, scraggly variation of the kind of intimacy Paul McCartney leaned toward on McCartney and Ram”. Smith’s piano-based songs incorporated similar chord progressions, and his swooning overdubbed backing vocals evoke Paul and Linda’s on Ram track Dear Boy. After its widely acclaimed followup XO, Smith received an invitation from George Martin to visit him in London. He made the journey, but Martin was abroad at the time, and the diffident singer reckoned it would have all been “a little too much” for him anyway. MB