Anyone who begins in Damien Rice’s minimalistic territory, slowly shifts up a gear into psych driven, cosmic Americana and finds room for blistering alt-rock guitar work outs, all in the space of three and a half minutes is someone that you really need to keep on your “ones to watch” list. Eli Smart’s Pretty Words, No More Words is a song built on simple lines and hypnotic and repetitive phrases, but it is the continuous layering up, texturising and dynamic growth of the song that is the real joy here.
By twists and turns it offers something new at every step, you can feel the weight of the song gradually growing but doing so organically, a gentle blossoming rather than being forced anywhere against its will. There is something wonderfully detached and remarkably loose about the sound Eli Smart creates here but it is also flooded with acid tinged psychedelic waves washing in from the darker underbelly of California’s lost hippy dream. Very smart indeed!
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