Elliott Smith - Roman Candle

Roman Candle was never supposed to be an album. In late 1993, while still playing loud, tangled rock with Heatmiser, Elliott Smith went down to the basement of a house in Portland and recorded a handful of songs alone on a four-track, hoping they might land him a 7-inch single. When Cavity Search Records heard the tape, the label asked to release the whole thing as it was. Smith hesitated, then agreed, and his solo career began on July 14, 1994.

What made it to the record is about as bare as music gets. Smith played every instrument himself, singing in a close, double-tracked near-whisper over fingerpicked acoustic guitar, with borrowed microphones catching every string squeak and breath. The title track opens the album with a tense, clenched strum, and "Condor Ave" and "Last Call" already show the melodic gift and unsparing eye that would define everything after. Four of the nine songs are simply titled "No Name," and the record closes with the instrumental "Kiwi Maddog 20/20," where a little snare and cymbal finally slip into the room.

Early reviews were mixed, but time has been kind to these thirty minutes. Roman Candle is now heard as the blueprint for one of the great songwriting catalogs of the 1990s, and the record that helped make hushed, home-recorded folk a language of its own. Everything Smith would refine on later albums is here in its rawest form.

This standard black vinyl pressing presents the album as remastered by Larry Crane for the Kill Rock Stars reissue, which softened the harshest guitar squeaks and consonants while leaving Smith's original mixes intact. It is the place to start, and the place longtime listeners keep coming back to.