ELLIOTT SMITH'S LAST ALBUM TO BE RELEASED



The first posthumous release from ELLIOTT SMITH will arrive this autumn.

Anti-Records, home to Tom Waits and Nick Cave, will release the follow-up to 2000's 'Figure 8' on October 19.

The singer-songwriter died last autumn from an alleged self-inflicted wound. 'From A Basement On The Hill' is a collection of tracks Smith was working on at the time. It was approved by Smith's estate and also features some of the material released on his final single on the Kill Rock Stars imprint, 'Pretty (Ugly Before)', which following the singer's death was exchanging hands on ebay for upwards of $1,000.

The effort was recorded on the West Coast of the US and produced by Elliott Smith himself. Final production touches were put on by his friends and family.

The full tracklisting for 'From a Basement On The Hill' is:

'Coast to Coast'
'Let's Get Lost'
'Pretty (Ugly Before)'
'Don't Go Down'
'Strung Out Again'
'Fond Farewell'
'King's Crossing'
'Ostriches & Chirping'
'Twilight'
'A Passing Feeling'
'Last Hour'
'Shooting Star'
'Memory Lane'
'Little One'
'A Distorted Reality is Now Necessary to be Free'



i've been somberly waiting for this--and now i'm excited. it's strange the release date is a year after his passing, almost to the day. i think he died on 21 october of last year. i've still never even heard that 'pretty (ugly before)' single--does anybody have it/heard it? is it good?

Rich Creamy Brian has the single. Pretty different, but pretty good, too.

Was there ever a conclusive report on whether or not he was on drugs when he died? I wanted to incorporate his story into a talk (possibly my dissertation).

that's the interesting thing about it...from what i've read, he was clean when he died. no illegal drugs in his system at all. to me, there are a lot of unanswered questions about that whole affair. it just doesn't add up evenly...

I have that single too & I love it. Definitely quintessential Elliott, but some significant steps forward, too. The police/ coroner's report says "toxicology reports revealed no illicit substances. All medications were therapeutic or subtherapeutic". You can read it here, but be warned that it brought me to tears & is a very cold & graphic description of a horrific event. Despite the controversy/ unanswered questions, I believe he killed himself. He'd tried before, he was obsessed with it, it would be idiotic for the girlfriend to stick around & make up the story she told.

yeah, i know, but it still just doesn't make sense to me...i mean, that he did it after he finally got clean. i also don't know why jennifer chiba pulled the knife out of his chest. he may have lived if she hadn't done that, right? it's likewise a little strange that he would misspell his own name (well, it was sort of his name) on the suicide note. it's just sad, any way you want to look at it.

(Edited by andrewjsmithson at 8:10 pm on Jul. 16, 2004)

I guess I figure she panicked- I think it's a reasonable first impulse to pull it out. To clarify, the smoking gun says Elliott's name was misspelled by the police, i.e. in their reporting of the note. So not misspelled by its author. Also, from the interviews & stuff I've read from his last year, it seems he was also "clean" from his anti-depressants. Much as I hate Pfizer et al, those drugs might have been keeping him alive. I feel like an asshole speculating about this stuff- you're right that it's just incredibly sad no matter what.

oops. yeah, i misunderstood that part...well, in any event, i'm sure he did kill himself...the only thing i found surprising about it when the news reached me was that it hadn't happened two years before...it nonetheless upset me to a degree that i was on the verge of tears about it all day--i was more torn up about it than if somebody i'd actually known had died. his music really touched me deeply, profoundly. i only met him one time, but i'll never forget it...it was after that semi-legendary 328 show where the power had gone out. he was outside signing autographs in the rain despite being sick--so myself and a friend held an umbrella over him while he signed all this stuff for people. i remember he was kind of a low-talker, a little shy, mumbling and smiling at everybody. he was a real sweetheart, atleast for that night.

(Edited by andrewjsmithson at 10:06 pm on Jul. 16, 2004)

I too was on the verge of tears the whole day. The man brought me so much happiness. His songs influenced me as much, if not more than Dylan, Lennon, and Tweedy. When you feel like you identify with someone so much that they could be your brother or best friend, then it is in fact *almost* like losing someone close to you. The difference obviously being that you don't have a nuturing/everyday/loving relationship with the musician like you do with a member of your family.

I remember going to work at 7 a.m and logging on to the net and there it was on the front page of Yahoo. My heart sank, but i was only "shocked" for a brief moment. That may be the saddest part of all.

yeah, me too...whereas i am very much influenced by dylan, tweedy, and countless others, steven "elliott" smith reached a deeper place in me than anybody else ever could. i always felt so close to him because he gave a name and a shape to my own feelings so many times. i can't even begin to express how acutely i sometimes felt some of those songs, certain lyrics...i'd love to organize some kind of tribute night. people could play some of his songs, we could listen to the new record...seems like a good idea to me, atleast. i was playing 2:45 am earlier today, as a matter of fact. it's always been one of my favorites.

Yep, me too. To read roadie's moving thoughts on it just after it happened, and others', look here. I know people did tributes in the immediate aftermath. Maybe this year around the record release/ 1 yr. from the day?

yes, i really think we should try to make something like that happen. i know i would love it...whether we had a covers night or we just listened to the record, it would mean a lot to me to do something for elliott...and the anniversary of his death would be an ideal time to celebrate his life & his music.

I'd be in.

So, my husband downloaded the new album from soulseek, in some sort of pre-mastered state. I was kind of upset about that...it bothers me that someone would leak it ahead of time. My reaction to hearing it was weird, too- I asked him to turn it off after 3 songs. It's like I'm not ready to experience it yet, especially before I expected to.

What I heard was excellent- very classic Elliott, but also really different & pushing his former boundaries way past what I'm used to from him. I don't know if all of his fans will like it. But it was just so unsettling to hear these brilliant things, maybe his best work, and think about how that's the end of it. It's almost like if it was more mundane, more similar to his other work, or just less interesting, it would've been easier to hear. But hearing so many fantastic ideas, one after the other, was more than I could handle. Maybe I'll listen to the rest of it sometime soon. I've never had such an odd emotional response to a record.

Keep me posted if anything concrete gets planned in Nashville around the release time- my husband is itching to play Elliott songs or hear them with other people.

Wow, I really can't wait to hear it. Sounds like I should make sure I'm alone when that happens.

I have heard, on good authority (people from epitaph which is over the anti label on which the album will be released) that it is his best work. Unfortunately I had the oppurtunity to listen and didn't take it, but everyone that I know that has listened said it was amazing.

It's really good, but I still prefer Either/Or.

you sonofabitch. you've got it and you're holding out on me?...tsk, tsk. either/or is my favorite. it can't possibly be better than that.

holla brother smithson. either/or is one of the masterpieces of the 90's. Fuck...its one of the masterpieces of the 20th century. so likewise i can't see how it can possibly be better than that.

Just to whet your appetite...here's an illuminating, if kind of sensational, article about the producer/track choices made posthumously for From a Basement...

This quote sums up how I feel about it, (what I tried to say less eloquently after I first heard it):
"The new record is probably the most sad because it doesn't sound like a man at the end of his rope...It's just a very, very bright light."

Bring on the reviews, fans & critics. I especially like Strung Out Again, King's Crossing, & The Last Hour. I don't like the drums on Shooting Star...otherwise, no complaints about the production. I know that one dude says Elliott wanted it to be non-cleaned up, but you can appreciate the songcraft much better in a prettier state, I think.

fond farewell stands out after a day of casual listening.

By the way it's been one year since he took his life.

That's funny- I actually like that one the least. It's not like he has bad songs, though. Re: his death- see my admittedly cheesy & sentimental signature. I still can't believe he'll never create anything else, and it still upsets me.

I finally picked up the CD last night (after listening to some lower quality mp3s for awhile). I gotta go with LW here and say Fond Farewell is probably my favorite right now. Twilight is pretty amazing as well.

I'm trying hard not to listen to the lyrics too closely. I don't want to cry at work.

I wasn't a huge fan the first time I listened to it, but I'm liking it more and more. XO is my favorite, though, and I don't think it's anywhere close to it.

I cannot stand the lyrics on "Pretty (Ugly Before)".

(Edited by Sexy Sadie at 10:15 pm on Nov. 8, 2004)