From a Basement on the Hill

Upon its release in 2004, almost exactly a year after Elliott Smith’s still mysterious death, many critics and fans considered From A Basement on the Hill a sort of suicide note.

A 2004 article in Spin had this to say about the album’s sound:

From the beginning, Smith intended his last album to be more musically fierce, more sonically twisted, and less lyrically abstract than anything he had done before. His inspiration was a record that he’d discovered when he was only five years old. “He referred to From a Basement on the Hill as his ‘White Album,‘” David McConnell says. “Very unproduced, very spontaneous. Whether he was high or sober, he was very consistent. He’d rather have it emotionally raw than be in pitch. We would purposely detune the guitars out of pitch enough to sound gritty, just to the point that it’s upsetting. We might start off with traditional sounds. But he would say, ‘How can we make these songs make your stomach churn?'”

Consider listening to “Shooting Star” for a taste of what Smith may have been going for.