From a Basement on the Hill [Blue Vinyl] in Bloomington, MN

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
's home recordings. At the time of his death,
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
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
intended it to be. According to
, as well as
biographer
Benjamin Nugent
,
wanted the album to be rough and ragged, and
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
, but appear on the record in different mixes.
It's hard to dispute that
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
would have been what would have been heard if
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
is cleaner than what
intended, it is much sparer than
, and it feels at once more adventurous, confident, and warmer than its predecessor. Perhaps it's not "the next
White Album
," which is what
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
's previous work, but it feels like a step forward from the fussy
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,
is comforting in its sadness; it's empathetic, not alienating. Given
'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
, a warm sense of melancholy -- delivered in a strong set of songs that stands among his best. It may or may not be exactly what
intended these recording sessions to be, but as it stands,
is a fond farewell to a singer/songwriter who many indie rockers of the '90s considered a friend. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine