Elliott Smith From A Basement On The Hill CD

Personnel: Elliott Smith (vocals); Nelson Gary (spoken vocals); Sam Coomes (bass guitar, background vocals); Aaron Sperske, Steven Drozd, Steven Drodz, Aaron Sperske (drums); Aaron Embry (keyboards); Scott McPherson, Fritz Michaud (drums).
Audio Mixers: Joanna Bolme; Rob Schnapf.
Recording information: Audobahn Recording; Chateau Brion; Cherokee Recording; Elliott's Home, Los Angeles, CA; Elliott's Home, Portland, Jamaica; Fort Apache; New Monkey; Satellite Park; Sunset sound; Two Beers & Everybody Sings.
Photographers: Dominic Disala; Paul Heartfield; Ashley Welch.
Reader: Nelson Gary.
Almost exactly a year after his untimely death -- missing the anniversary by just two days -- Elliott Smith's final recordings were released as the From a Basement on the Hill album. Smith had been working on the album for a long time. His last album, Figure 8, had appeared in 2000, and when it came time to record its follow-up, he parted ways with both his major label, Dreamworks, and his longtime producer/engineer, Rob Schnapf, working through a number of different producers, including L.A. superproducer Jon Brion, before recording a number of sessions with David McConnell, which were supplemented with Smith's home recordings. At the time of his death, Smith was still tinkering with the album. There was no final track sequence and only a handful of final mixes; it was closer to completion than Jeff Buckley's Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk, which he intended to re-record, but it was still up to his family to finalize the record. For various reasons, the family chose to work with Schnapf and Joanna Bolme -- a former girlfriend of Smith and current member of Stephen Malkmus' Jicks -- instead of McConnell, who went on record with Kimberly Chun of The San Francisco Bay Area Guardian the week before the release of From a Basement to state that this album was not exactly what Smith intended it to be. According to McConnell, as well as Elliott Smith biographer Benjamin Nugent, Smith wanted the album to be rough and ragged, and McConnell told Chun that "obviously Elliott did not get his wishes," claiming that three of the songs on the album were considered finished by both him and Smith, but appear on the record in different mixes.
It's hard to dispute that Smith did not get to finalize the mixes, the track selection, or the sequencing -- he died, after all, with the album uncompleted -- but that's the nature of posthumous recordings: they're never quite what might have appeared had the artist lived. Critics, fans, and historians can have endless debates about whether this particular incarnation of the songs on From a Basement on the Hill would have been what would have been heard if Smith had finished the record, but that doesn't take away from the simple fact that the music here is strong enough to warrant a release, and that it offers a sense of resolution to his discography. While it's likely that From a Basement is cleaner than what Smith and McConnell intended, it is much sparer than Figure 8, and it feels at once more adventurous, confident, and warmer than its predecessor. Perhaps it's not "the next White Album," which is what McConnell claims it could have been, but it has a similarly freewheeling spirit, bouncing from sweet pop to fingerpicked acoustic guitars to fuzzy neo-psychedelic washes of sound. It's not far removed from Smith's previous work, but it feels like a step forward from the fussy Figure 8 and more intimate than XO. The most surprising twist is that despite the occasional lyrics that seem to telegraph his death (particularly on "A Fond Farewell"), it's not a crushingly heavy album. Like the best of his music, From a Basement on the Hill is comforting in its sadness; it's empathetic, not alienating. Given Smith's tragic fate, it also sadly seems like a summation of his work. All of his trademarks are here -- his soft, sad voice, a fixation on '60s pop, a warm sense of melancholy -- delivered in a strongRolling Stone (p.98) - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 - "This is an album about the seductions of oblivion...Smith teases extraordinary wit and warmth from songs that float lazily toward happiness."
Rolling Stone (p.151) - Included in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Records Of 2004 - "[A] gripping trip to oblivion, sparkling with barbed wit and elegantly tangled guitars."
Spin (pp.105-6) - "Smith's intentions cry out from the album's every discordant corner - he clearly wanted to test himself, to unhinge parts of his sound....In the music, in these songs, the guy's still with us." - Grade: A-
Spin (p.67) - Ranked #6 in Spin's "40 Best Albums of the Year" - "BASEMENT feels monumentally final..."
Entertainment Weekly (pp.92-3) - "The record is strong and radiant..." - Grade: A-
Uncut (p.106) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[He] was great....Here are 15 more reasons not to forget Elliott Smith's harrowing sadness - and his singular musical intelligence."
Uncut (p.75) - Ranked #8 in Uncut's "Best New Albums of 2004" - "[T]he songs are variously full of hope, frustration and weary resignation..."
Alternative Press (p.150) - 5 out of 5 - "[E]very track on BASEMENT is a highlight."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.92) - 4 stars out of 5 - "As ever, his chord changes and arrangements betray an inventiveness seemingly borne of brilliant instinct."