The last record by the modern-day Nick Drake, posthumously released, Elliot Smith’s From a Basement On the Hill (2004) is a sobering but strong reminder that he was, and still is, one of the best songwriter’s to have passed through the cannon. Shifting back again towards more electric instrumentation with his characteristically acoustic bent, fleshed out with a definitively orchestrated mix, From a Basement is Smith’s reminder to us all that he may have been down, but never out (until the very end, at least). Regardless of whether he committed suicide, or was murdered (as musical conspiracy-theorists have assumed), it does not blemish or tarnish the record in any way, but rather, gives it an even more haunting air of beauty and transcendence. At times the record bristles with a certain post-grunge bent in the case of “King’s Crossing” and “Don’t Go Down”, but there are other moments where the sound is so massive, yet the sentiment so specific and quiet, that the dynamics of his songwriting capacity are clear and true. “Shooting Star” best demonstrates the cacophonous production that he chose to implement, diverging from past records greatly, but every single not and flourish seems to have it’s place, syncing up with his lyrical poetry, making the music bob and weave with a jittery beauty. Though it is in the quietest moments of the album, where Smith harks back to classic Smith on tracks like “Last Hour” and “Memory Lane” that the deepest nostalgia comes out—the feeling of these tracks obviously owe a great deal to the untimely end of the artist who wrote them, but they still have a certain je ne sais quoi that alludes to Smith’s ability to pack in as much detail without giving away the whole picture. The Nick Drake comparison is most obvious in these moments, but Smith had an even greater faculty for mastering the ‘post-whatever’ crowd’s attention. He was a true emotional-militant, in terms of music; always knowing how to guide and direct his audience and fans with the perfect balance of honesty and myth, but never sacrificing the craft in between.
Listen to “Don’t Go Down” and “Shooting Star” (Live in 2001, Acoustic version) and “Pretty (Ugly Before)” (Live at Irving Plaza, 2005)
Download “From a Basement On the Hill“
