Elliott Smith

Amazon Significant Seven, December 2007: Laden with all kinds of PostSecret-era ephemera, as well as pages and pages of outtakes from DeWilde's photo shoots with Smith and fascinating discussions between the author and Smith's contemporaries, Elliott Smith is a stunning example of how a tribute book should be made. DeWilde's photography is stark and intimate but never probing, and what comes across is as real a portrait of Elliott Smith as any fan may ever see. Thumbing through the book I was often reminded of a reluctant child, standing quietly yet somehow furiously, waiting for the scrutiny he's suffering to end--it's the same kind of sweet, sublimated emotion that makes his songs (for me, anyway) so powerfully good. That's the beauty of this book: it shows you the artist that you want to see, yet protects Smith from the kind of rueful sentiment one might expect to be lurking here. (P.S. The bonus CD featuring Smith's cover of "All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down" is worth the price of admission alone.) --Anne Bartholomew