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Despite all the critical acclaim surrounding him, I’ve never listened to Elliot Smith before today.

I hate it when that happens, you hear about an artist, you know they’re supposed to be great, but for some reason you never get around to listening to them. Then finally, when you do, you get angry for having previously denied yourself the joy of listening. Then of course, you have to pretend to everyone that you’ve always listened to said artist so that nobody ever realises you could have been so ignorant as to miss out for so long. Alas, I’ll admit it: I have never listened to Elliot Smith before today. When I went home a couple of weeks ago my brother, James, gave me a couple of his albums. I stuck one on this morning and damn, its so very, very good. His song-writing, his performance, his vocal delivery, his lyrics… its all so beautiful…

…but hey, I’ve always been a fan of Elliot Smith…