Be My Baby

He's a rainbow: Sweet, solipsistic alt-folkie Elliott Smith

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More About

• Elliott Smith (Musician)
• John Lennon
• Paul Westerberg
• The Beach Boys
• Matt Damon

In fact, X/O is less about capturing youth than not growing up. The lovely first single, "Waltz #2 (X/O)," sees him estranged from a recently married love object. "She shows no emotion at all," he sings with pain, offering what sounds more like a presumption than an observation. Fading in and out of love and loss, our little soldier collapses: "Just leave me alone/In the place where I make no mistakes/In the place where I have what it takes," he rails with childlike anger. But X/O is so pretty, honest, and, in its pop bliss, so free of mistakes, we're willing to allow him all him that and more. We may even wanna crawl in with him: goo goo.