The suicide of beloved singer-songwriter Elliott Smith last fall shocked and saddened fans everywhere. Smith was one of the most creative, powerful voices in the music of his generation. With his death, it seemed that the double album he had been working on for the past two years was doomed. Instead, Smith’s family asked producers Rob Schnapf, who worked on Smith’s previous two albums, and Joanna Bolme, Smith’s ex-girlfriend and long-time collaborator, to put the finishing touches on the album. On Oct. 19, nearly a year after Smith’s suicide, From a Basement on the Hill, a single disc album capturing the finest of Smith’s final recordings will be released by ANTI records.
The finished product surpasses expectations, ranking among the year’s best albums, and establishes itself as a fitting swan song for Smith’s brilliant, but tragic career.
Basement builds on and refines his recent experimentation with more expansive production for his typically sparse songwriting. There are still songs in the tradition of his earlier, albums like Roman Candle that feature just Smith’s voice and delicately played guitar. Those that retain that sensibility, like the strikingly beautiful “Twilight,” are some of the album’s most moving.
Much of the album is characterized by the bigger, more orchestral sound that Smith developed on his last two albums, XO and Figure 8. From a Basement on the Hill shows the same debt to George Harrison that characterized those two albums, but Smith avoids the bloated overproduction and weak songwriting that bogged down Figure 8. With electric guitar playing a more prominent role than ever, he concentrates on a more rock-oriented style for many of the album’s best tracks, like the pounding opener “Coast to Coast” and the bitter “Strung Out Again.” As a result, Basement blows Figure 8 out of the water and seriously rivals the excellent XO.
The album is by no means flawless. At times, songs stretch on too long, and the arrangements become overwrought, or even unnecessary. Smith’s greatest strength had always been his power to do wonders with nothing but an acoustic guitar and his trademark whispered vocals. Songs like “Don’t Go Down” and “Shooting Star” are excellent at their core, but as each progresses, the melodies are weighed down by the ornamentation draped over them. The synthesis of lush orchestration, aggressive rock impulses and delicate acoustic guitar often works, but ultimately reinforces the impression that Smith is most at home working unaccompanied, which has been evident since his 1997 masterpiece Either/Or.
The fact that Basement is a posthumous release also raises the question of how Smith’s death affects the way a fan listens to the album. The truth is it’s hard to tell exactly how much influence Schnapf, Bolme and Smith each had on Basement, and this ambiguity is where the album is a true victory for all three. Basement has its flaws, but it sounds firmly like Elliott Smith. It is a tremendous accomplishment from one of the greatest songwriters of the last decade.
