Patron saint of indie music, Elliott Smith was once making folk based baroque pop on his own while simultaneously fuzzing-out amps in his former band Heatmiser. Upon "going solo," Smith's own moderately downtempo songwriting had tastefully expanded and grown with clever arrangements and matured instrumentation. Grand pianos and classically arranged strings took the place of grungy distortion boxes and toy guitars. The overall production was stepped up, but not stylistically compromi...  [+]