From a Basement on the Hill | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | October 18, 2004 | |||
Recorded | 2000–2003 | |||
Genre | Indie rock [1] | |||
Length | 57:54 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer |
| |||
Elliott Smith chronology | ||||
|
From a Basement on the Hill is the sixth and final studio album by the American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. Recorded from 2000 to 2003, and faced with multiple delays due to Smith's personal problems that resulted in his death, it was released posthumously in the UK and Europe on Domino on October 18, 2004, [2] and in the US the following day on October 19, 2004, through record label Anti-, [3] almost a year after his death.
The album was initially planned as a double album, and was incomplete at the time of Smith's death. [4] Many of the songs Smith intended for the album remained unfinished, in some cases lacking only vocals. Smith's family hired his former producer Rob Schnapf and ex-girlfriend Joanna Bolme to sort through and finish the batch of over thirty songs that were recorded for the album, although the estate retained final decision on which tracks to include. [4]
Many of the songs reference Smith's lifelong struggles with drug addiction and depression. His cause of death is officially unknown, as the coroner's report remarks that some aspects pointed to suicide and some to murder. The official nature of the case and statements from close friends state that his death is still under speculation. It has not been investigated further. [4]
From a Basement on the Hill became Smith's highest-charting album in the US and was praised by critics, with reviewers complimenting the album's attempts to expand Smith's sound, such as the incorporation of instrumental passages, as well as heavier, guitar-based material.
On October 21, 2003, Elliott Smith died of two stab wounds, presumed by many to be self-inflicted. The wounds occurred following a heated argument at the Los Angeles home of his girlfriend, Jennifer Chiba. The coroner's determination was that the mode of death was undetermined and raised the possibility of homicide. [5]
Smith battled heavy drug addiction and severe depression for most of his life, [6] although he was sober in his final days, seeking treatment at the Neurotransmitter Restoration Center in Beverly Hills and even giving up alcohol, caffeine, red meat, refined sugars and most of his prescribed psychiatric medications on his 34th birthday. Smith took to sobriety with the same intensity with which he took to intoxication, and he found himself suddenly face-to-face with a lifetime of depression and unmanaged emotional trauma. [4]
The album was initially planned as a double album, due to contractual obligations with the DreamWorks label (now Interscope). [7] Smith had over fifty songs on tape reel or digital hard drive. He completed mixing on nine of these tracks with several others lacking only minor revisions or final vocals. Smith's estate hired Schnapf and Bolme to complete mixing on these tracks and eventually chose fifteen for inclusion on the album, which was ultimately released on the Anti- label. [4] During the recording period for the album, Smith had recorded with Steven Drozd and Russell Simins, drummers for The Flaming Lips and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, respectively. [8]
Following Smith's death, Rob Schnapf, producer of Smith's earlier albums Either/Or , XO and Figure 8 , was hired to mix and produce the album, along with Smith's former girlfriend Joanna Bolme. David McConnell, although present throughout much of the actual recording process, was not consulted during the mixing, nor was he asked for the extensive three years' worth of notes he and Smith had made while the album was being recorded. [9] When asked why he personally took up the job of finishing the album, Schnapf stated, "I had a paternal, protective feeling. I didn't want anybody mucking it up." [10]
"Coast to Coast" features poetry by Nelson Gary. Smith told Under the Radar in 2003: "I asked this friend of mine to make up something he could say as fast as he could in fifteen minutes about people healing themselves or being unable to heal themselves. While he's saying this thing there is a main vocal that goes over that." [11] The lyric "You're keeping me around, until I finally drag us both down" details a dysfunctional relationship.
"Pretty (Ugly Before)" was previously released as a single in August 2003 on Suicide Squeeze Records, along with a different version of "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free". [12] According to McConnell, Smith did not intend to have "Pretty (Ugly Before)" on the album. [13]
In "King's Crossing", where he sings "It's Christmas time and the needle's on the tree, the skinny Santa is bringing something to me", Smith alludes to using heroin, which he had many problems with. [14] [15]
The lyrics also contain references to the practice of a Circuit rider (religious), the Liberty Bell, The Dalles, Oregon and Lite-Brite toys.
Schnapf noted that the track "Ostrich & Chirping", a short instrumental made from sampling and looping the noises made by a toy bird, had nothing to do with Smith and was something that McConnell had recorded by himself. McConnell said "don't ask me how this ended up on the record, I totally forgot I had put that on one of his reels." [16]
From a Basement on the Hill was released on October 19, 2004, almost a year after Smith's death, through record label ANTI-, a sub-label of Epitaph.
It debuted at No. 19 in the US, selling 43,000 copies, giving him his best first week sales, [17] and making it his highest-charting album in the US to date. [18] The album has also been re-released by Kill Rock Stars, alongside a remastered reissue of his 1994 debut, Roman Candle . [19]
When asked what Smith would have thought of the album, McConnell told Benjamin Nugent, "I don't think he would have delivered [that] record. The record he would have delivered would have had more songs, would have had different mixes and [been] a little more in-your-face." [20] Schnapf also expressed that the final result that he and Bolme had produced was not the album that Smith would have made, simply because Elliott was not around to finish the album. Bolme also said that they did not add anything to the songs, and only mixed whatever had been recorded: "I would never presume to add anything. We didn't add anything." [21]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 88/100 [22] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [23] |
Entertainment Weekly | A− [24] |
The Guardian | [25] |
Los Angeles Times | [26] |
Mojo | [27] |
NME | 9/10 [28] |
Pitchfork | 7.2/10 (2004) [29] 8.4/10 (2010) [30] |
Q | [31] |
Rolling Stone | [32] |
Spin | A− [33] |
After his death and the release of From a Basement on the Hill, many critics and fans viewed the album as a suicide note. Sindri Eldon, a journalist for Reykjavík Grapevine wrote, "...the foreshadowing of his suicide is so strong that it's difficult to listen to." [34]
From a Basement on the Hill was well received by critics. On music review aggregator website Metacritic, the album holds an approval rating of 88 out of 100 based on 37 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim." It is one of the site's all-time highest-rated albums. Many reviewers complimented the album's attempts to expand Smith's sound, such as the incorporation of instrumental passages, as well as heavier, guitar-based material. [22]
Pitchfork called it "perfectly coherent and cohesive, without any sense of being slapped together from half-finished parts." [29] E! Online called it "a beautiful swansong to one of this generation's best." [22] Filter called it "large and epic, but tense and claustrophobic as well, and, gratefully, it's as close to Elliott as we've ever been." [22] Billboard stated that "Smith bundles together subtlety and ferocity to create one of his heart-aching best... Consider it a 'fond farewell' to one of this generations most poignant and gifted songwriters." [3] Rolling Stone had some reservations, observing that "this is an album about the seductions of oblivion, and a few of the more densely arranged songs mimic the characters in the lyrics, stumbing around without quite connecting. More often though, Smith teases extraordinary wit and warmth from songs that float lazily toward happiness." [32]
In the UK the album was received even more enthusiastically than in Smith's home country. Q wrote, "Given that its backstory involves one of the grimmest deaths in music history, it's tempting to view this album darkly, but really, there's no denying the new twist here... Without wanting to second-guess his mindset, this music often sounds like the madness surrounding its creator – his heroin troubles, an allegedly turbulent relationship, his struggles against depression. So what dominates are these loud, wayward Los Angeles epics full of gothic grandeur, broken-glass emotions, bizarre soundscapes and heavy, early-'70s guitars." The review concluded, "All posthumous releases receive garlands of praise but this would take your breath away whatever the circumstances". [31]
Other critics, however, were cautious about viewing the album as a suicide note: Mojo felt that "to do so would be to miss the crucial point – that From a Basement on the Hill is of a piece within a body of work that stretches back to the mid-'90s. If Smith's lyrical themes were pretty much constant, the point was only underlined by the survival of his abiding aesthetic. In very crude terms, he took the spirit of such White Album songs as "Long, Long, Long", "Julia" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and re-rooted them in a lovelorn, druggy demi-monde... Smith, however, was no mere pasticheur. As ever, his chord changes and arrangements betray an inventiveness seemingly borne of brilliant instinct. Moreover, the songs that form this album's spine find him striding away, not only from his own influences, but the approach that had defined his last couple of records. Those who found Figure 8 and parts of XO too in thrall to the musical ways of the West Coast – slightly over-airbrushed, maybe a little too lush – will be cheered by the fractured, frankly grungey likes of "Don't Go Down" and "Coast to Coast": in their own controlled way, as messy and imperfect as the experiences described therein. The contrast between their music and Smith's ever-tender vocals makes for a compelling tension; here, he alights upon an approach that would have gone on to serve him admirably well." [27] NME observed that the opening track "Coast to Coast" "sets out the themes which run through the whole album: chronic self-doubt, poisonous sarcasm, a prevailing sense of having had enough of trying to fulfil other people's expectations", and went on to state that "while this is clearly not the record Smith intended to make, it's still an immensely gripping and cohesive piece of work. For all his experiments with grungier rock and spectral acoustics, From a Basement... holds together convincingly. It sounds like a completely finished album, and one which, remarkably, is a match for the very best in Smith's catalogue." [28]
All tracks are written by Elliott Smith, except "Ostrich & Chirping", written by David McConnell
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Coast to Coast" | 5:33 |
2. | "Let's Get Lost" | 2:27 |
3. | "Pretty (Ugly Before)" | 4:45 |
4. | "Don't Go Down" | 4:34 |
5. | "Strung Out Again" | 3:12 |
6. | "A Fond Farewell" | 3:58 |
7. | "King's Crossing" | 4:57 |
8. | "Ostrich & Chirping" | 0:33 |
9. | "Twilight" | 4:29 |
10. | "A Passing Feeling" | 3:32 |
11. | "The Last Hour" | 3:27 |
12. | "Shooting Star" | 6:01 |
13. | "Memory Lane" | 2:30 |
14. | "Little One" | 3:14 |
15. | "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free" | 4:32 |
Additional personnel
Technical
Chart (2004) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian ARIA Albums Chart [35] | 50 |
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders) [36] | 47 |
Canadian Albums Chart [37] | 33 |
French SNEP Albums Chart [38] | 45 |
Irish Albums Chart [39] | 11 |
Norwegian Albums Chart [40] | 37 |
Swedish Albums Chart [41] | 52 |
UK Albums Chart [42] | 41 |
US Billboard 200 [18] | 19 |
US Billboard Independent Albums [43] | 1 |
Steven Paul Smith, known professionally as Elliott Smith, was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived much of his life in Portland, Oregon, where he gained popularity. Smith's primary instrument was the guitar, though he also played piano, clarinet, bass guitar, drums, and harmonica. He had a distinctive vocal style, characterized by his "whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery", and often used multi-tracking to create vocal layers, textures, and harmonies.
Music from Big Pink is the debut studio album by the Band. Released in 1968, it employs a distinctive blend of country, rock, folk, classical, R&B, blues, and soul. The music was composed partly in "Big Pink", a house shared by bassist/singer Rick Danko, pianist/singer Richard Manuel and organist Garth Hudson in West Saugerties, New York. The album itself was recorded in studios in New York and Los Angeles in 1968, and followed the band's backing of Bob Dylan on his 1966 tour and time spent together in upstate New York recording material that was officially released in 1975 as The Basement Tapes, also with Dylan. The cover artwork is a painting by Dylan.
Heatmiser was an American rock band, formed in Portland, Oregon in October 1991. Consisting of Elliott Smith, Neil Gust, Brandt Peterson and Tony Lash (drums), they were known for their well-crafted lyrics and songs often featuring the juxtaposition of melancholic and cheery words and melodies. The pop-oriented songs of Elliott Smith were a contrast to the darker songs of Neil Gust, while both Smith's and Gust's songs touched on subjects such as anger, alienation, loneliness and despair.
Either/Or is the third studio album by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. Either/Or was recorded in several locations, mostly in Portland, Oregon – while Smith was still a member of Heatmiser – and was produced by Smith, Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf. Either/Or was released on February 25, 1997, on the Kill Rock Stars record label, following Heatmiser's dissolution. Book-ended by its two singles, "Speed Trials" and "Ballad of Big Nothing", Either/Or did not chart in the US, but was acclaimed by critics.
XO is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. It was recorded from 1997 to 1998 and released on August 25, 1998, by record label DreamWorks; Smith's first solo album on a major record label. Two singles, "Waltz #2 (XO)" and "Baby Britain", were released.
Roman Candle is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. It was recorded in late 1993 and released on July 14, 1994, by record label Cavity Search.
Quasi is an American indie rock band formed in Portland, Oregon in 1993 by former spouses Sam Coomes and Janet Weiss. Joanna Bolme performed and recorded with the group as a bassist from 2007 to 2011.
Figure 8 is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, and the final studio album released during his lifetime. It was recorded from 1998 to 2000 at numerous studios and released on April 18, 2000, through DreamWorks Records. Preceded by the singles "Happiness" and "Son of Sam", Figure 8 was Smith's second release on a major label.
Samuel J. Coomes is an American musician, and one-half of the Portland-area indie band Quasi, along with his ex-wife, drummer Janet Weiss. Coomes was also a member of the mid-1980s underground pop band The Donner Party and replaced Brandt Peterson as the bassist for the 1990s Portland indie rock band, Heatmiser, playing on their final studio album, Mic City Sons.
"Baby Britain" is a song by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. It was released in 1999 by record label DreamWorks as the second single from his fourth studio album, XO.
"Pretty (Ugly Before)" is a song by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. It was released as a limited-edition 7" vinyl single in 2003 by record label Suicide Squeeze, Smith's final single released during his lifetime. It was later re-released by Domino in 2004, and appeared on Smith's posthumous final album, From a Basement on the Hill.
Rob Schnapf is an American record producer and musician. He was the co-producer of Elliott Smith's albums Either/Or, XO, Figure 8 and From a Basement on the Hill, for which he was recruited by Smith's family to complete after Smith's death.
Tom Rothrock is an American musician, composer, record producer and owner of Bong Load Records. Tom Rothrock has worked with James Blunt, Foo Fighters, Moby, Beck, Badly Drawn Boy, R. L. Burnside, Athlete, Sloan, Gwen Stefani, Motörhead, Elbow, Stevie Nicks, Poison, Elliott Smith, Richard Thompson, Yonder Mountain String Band. Rothrock has also composed or contributed to soundtracks for notable motion pictures such as About A Boy, Good Will Hunting, Collateral and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie.
Joanna Bolme is an American multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer who works with several indie rock bands and artists, mainly in the Pacific Northwest. She has been the bass guitarist for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks since their formation in 2001. On October 12, 2019, Bolme was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame.
Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing is a biography of musician Elliott Smith by Benjamin Nugent. It was published by Da Capo Press on October 30, 2004, just past the one-year anniversary of Smith's death. The book contains interviews with two of the musician's producers, Rob Schnapf and David McConnell, and friends such as Pete Krebs, and Bill Santen, but does not contain any original interviews with Smith, his family or his close friends.
The discography of Elliott Smith, an American singer-songwriter, consists of six studio albums, one live album, two compilation albums and eleven singles.
New Moon is a posthumous compilation album by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, released on May 8, 2007 by Kill Rock Stars. It contains twenty-four previously unreleased songs, most recorded between 1994 and 1997 during the sessions for Smith's albums Elliott Smith and Either/Or.
Elliott Smith is a book about the musician Elliott Smith that was compiled by photographer Autumn de Wilde. The foreword was written by Beck and Chris Walla. The book was released in November 2007.
Your Majesty is the second studio album by American rock band the Anniversary. It was released on January 22, 2002, through Vagrant Records. Following the release of their debut studio album, Designing a Nervous Breakdown in early 2000, the band started writing new material by that August. They later recorded the album in June 2001 at Sonora Recorders in Los Feliz, California, with producer Rob Schnapf.
Watch My Moves, stylized as (watch my moves), is the ninth studio album by American indie rock musician Kurt Vile, released on April 15, 2022, on Verve Forecast Records. Co-produced by Vile and Rob Schnapf, the album's initial recording sessions began in 2019, during the tour in support of Vile's previous album, Bottle It In. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, resulted in Vile building a home recording studio, OKV Central, at which he, Schnapf and his backing band the Violators worked on the majority of the album's songs across lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.