Elliot Smith "From the Basement on a Hill"
Album Review
David Styburski
Issue date: 11/5/04 Section: The Edge
Grade: B
Elliott Smith's final album, "From a Basement on a Hill," contains all of the elements that will undoubtedly become the singer-songwriter's legacy. Every song features a narrator possessed by sorrow even when in the arms of a loving companion. On each track, a lullaby voice soothes the listener while just barely concealing the sadness of its owner.
With the album's release coming roughly a year after Smith's apparent suicide, one can easily play Monday-morning psychologist and claim that the woe and resignation to failure displayed in compositions such as "A Fond Farewell" foreshadowed the artist's death.
But if fans view "From a Basement on a Hill" strictly as a musical suicide note, they will miss the pleasures of the collection. At its most basic level, the album showcases a beautiful singer performing beautiful songs.
Simplistic treats, however, are occasionally difficult to discern behind much of the record's imposing production. Baroque pop arrangements make "Pretty (Ugly Before)" sound equally relaxed and complex ala the Beatles' "I'm Only Sleeping." But the drums and electric guitars on "Don't Go Down" rudely compete with Smith's gorgeous vocals so much that one wonders how much of the instrumentation was the artist's choice and how much was added posthumously without his permission.
The best moments on "From a Basement on a Hill" are the simplest ones, the seemingly untouched acoustic numbers that could have fit somewhere in the middle of "The White Album." "Memory Lane" and "Let's Get Lost" exhibit Smith's form of romanticism, gentle in its delivery but loaded with sincerity.
On his last record, Smith becomes more intimate with his public than most rock stars do in the span of their entire careers.
Elliott Smith's final album, "From a Basement on a Hill," contains all of the elements that will undoubtedly become the singer-songwriter's legacy. Every song features a narrator possessed by sorrow even when in the arms of a loving companion. On each track, a lullaby voice soothes the listener while just barely concealing the sadness of its owner.
With the album's release coming roughly a year after Smith's apparent suicide, one can easily play Monday-morning psychologist and claim that the woe and resignation to failure displayed in compositions such as "A Fond Farewell" foreshadowed the artist's death.
But if fans view "From a Basement on a Hill" strictly as a musical suicide note, they will miss the pleasures of the collection. At its most basic level, the album showcases a beautiful singer performing beautiful songs.
Simplistic treats, however, are occasionally difficult to discern behind much of the record's imposing production. Baroque pop arrangements make "Pretty (Ugly Before)" sound equally relaxed and complex ala the Beatles' "I'm Only Sleeping." But the drums and electric guitars on "Don't Go Down" rudely compete with Smith's gorgeous vocals so much that one wonders how much of the instrumentation was the artist's choice and how much was added posthumously without his permission.
The best moments on "From a Basement on a Hill" are the simplest ones, the seemingly untouched acoustic numbers that could have fit somewhere in the middle of "The White Album." "Memory Lane" and "Let's Get Lost" exhibit Smith's form of romanticism, gentle in its delivery but loaded with sincerity.
On his last record, Smith becomes more intimate with his public than most rock stars do in the span of their entire careers.
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