18 October 2024

It’s already 19 years – 21 October 2003 – since emotive singer/songwriter
ELLIOTT SMITH took his own life. He was only 34. He was born in Ohama,
Nebraska in 1969, but spent most of his life in Portland, Oregon.

After playing in a few bands, he went his own way.
He recorded/released 6 LPs between 1994 and 2004.

The final one, titled FROM A BASEMENT ON THE HILL
came out on 18 October 2004, today 20 years ago.

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 18 October 2004, and in the US the following
day on 19 October.

Pitchfork said at the time: “The album is riddled with helpless proclamations and self-incriminating taunts, clanging guitars and foggy, jumbled arrangements. Like nearly all of Smith’s records, From a Basement covers his despair in sweet, perky, folk-pop kisses; and yet the album is still the saddest thing you’ll hear all year. Smith’s gloom may be romanticized into gold, but what’s ultimately most harrowing about his unhappiness is its nastiness– and that same gritty, uncompromising accuracy is also what makes his records so impossibly urgent,
so uncomfortable and desperate.” Full review here. Score: 7/10.

STREAM ALBUM

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EL: Story – All Albums