Pitchfork: Elliott Smith's Final Album Nears Completion

Elliott Smith's Final Album Nears Completion
Jeff Buckley's mom fully expecting a cut of the profits

The Los Angeles Times has reported that Elliott Smith's final album, titled Songs from a Basement on a Hill, is nearing completion and that its tentative fall release is going according to plan. However, it seems to have been pared down from its originally reported double-album status, and will now be released as a single disc. The record, as most of you are probably aware, had been mostly completed before Smith's death from a (possibly) self-inflicted stabwound to the chest last October, but was not yet in a condition suitable for release.

Concerned parties can take solace in the fact that the album is shaping up as a labor of love for producers Rob Schnapf (co-producer of 1998's XO and 2000's Figure 8) and Joanna Bolme (Smith's former girlfriend and bassist for Stephen Malkmus' backing band, The Jicks). The two were appointed by Smith's family to put the finishing touches on Smith's musical tombstone-- which hopefully means, in the grand scheme of posthumous records, that Songs From a Basement on a Hill should be more Better Dayz than Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory.

Schnapf and Bolme are doing their best to complete the album in the way they believe Smith would have, taking cues from his written notes, early demos, and even conversations with people who had been in the studio with him while he worked. "Each record is different," Schnapf told the Times. "He's got his melodic sensibility... but he's not doing the same thing again. He's just pushing the boundaries, sending out the probe."

Regarding the album's sound, Schnapf said, "He always played with form, and that continues... I was always a fan of the littler, direct, intimate thing, and I'm just happy to see that he managed to do both again-- have this crazy big aural thing, and then be able to do a song just him and a guitar. The combination of the two makes both stronger."

Said Bolme, "There were little bits in the songs that would come up, and me and Rob would look at each other like, 'Ah, that's an Elliott thing.' Like his little goofy drum fill, or a guitar lick or something. We've had enough experience to know that would be the thing that Elliott would walk over and turn up." In an e-mail to Pitchfork, Charlie Ramirez, webmaster of the premiere Elliott Smith fansite Sweet Adeline, said that Smith had described the record to him personally as being similar to his work on Either/Or.

In related news, an upcoming Barsuk compilation is slated to feature a previously unreleased track by Smith. Titled Future Soundtrack for America, the disc was assembled by They Might Be Giants' John Flansburgh, and is intended to raise money for liberal polit-organization Moveon.org. It will be released August 6th. The label is being tight-lipped as to which Smith song will be featured, but since the compilation also includes songs by Blink-182, OK Go, and Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.I.Am, we suppose it'll be an essential purchase regardless. Wait... did we say Barsuk is putting this out? Yeah, I guess we did. A little Death Cab for Cutie goes straight to your head!