Album Review: Elliott Smith - Heaven Adores You

Unlike last year’s posthumous Kurt Cobain album, this isn’t an atrocious exercise in barrel-scraping. Nearly 13 years after his untimely death, Smith – one of the most tender and original American songwriters – continues to fascinate and beguile. This album also serves as the soundtrack to the documentary Heaven Adores You, an acclaimed film centred around the three cities in which Smith lived.

The live version of ‘Miss Misery’ from Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1998 is a reminder of his Oscars moment, when the shy boy from Portland spectacularly gatecrashed the mainstream.

One of the most interesting curios this collection throws up is a sweet song entitled ‘I Love My Room’, which Smith wrote when he was only 13. ”When I was 13, I was in a marching band,” he sings. “There were so many loved ones/They used to flock around me and tell me all my plans/They all loved my hands.”

While Smith has long left the building, his songs are genuinely immortal.

Key Track: ‘I Love My Room’

7/10

Out Now on Universal