From a Basement on the Hill

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From a Basement on the Hill

Studio album by Elliott Smith
Released	October 19, 2004
Recorded	Portland, Oregon and Los Angeles
Genre	Indie Rock, Baroque Pop
Length	57:54
Label	ANTI-
Producer(s)	Elliott Smith Rob Schnapf Joanna Bolme
All Music Guide link The A.V. Club (Mixed) link Pitchfork Media (7.2/10) 10/18/2004 PopMatters (Favourable) [1] [2] Rolling Stone 10/28/04 Tiny Mix Tapes 10/17/2004 Metacritic (88/100) link
Elliott Smith chronology
Figure 8 (2000)	From a Basement on the Hill (2004)	New Moon (2007)

From a Basement on the Hill is the sixth studio album by the late singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. Released posthumously on October 19, 2004 by ANTI- Records in CD, vinyl LP, and digital download, it peaked at #19 in the US and #41 in the UK.

Basement was incomplete at the time of Smith's death. Smith's family hired his former producer Rob Schnapf and ex-girlfriend Joanna Bolme to sort through and put the finishing touches on the batch of over 30 songs that were recorded for the album. Although Smith had stated many times that he wanted Basement to be a double album, they put together a single album of 15 songs, as contractual obligations with the singer's former label DreamWorks (now Interscope) prevented them from releasing a double album on an independent label. Many of the songs Smith intended for the album remained unfinished, in many cases lacking vocals.

The possibility remains that a collection of unreleased material may someday be released. However, due to the aforementioned contractual obligations, all of the remaining material is the property of Interscope, making a release unlikely without a boom in the popularity of Elliott Smith's music.

1 Controversy
2 Track listing
3 Outtakes, B-sides, non-album tracks
4 Other songs from this era
5 Personnel
6 Trivia
7 External links
8 References

[edit] Controversy

David McConnell, who produced seven of the tracks that appear on the album with Smith and thus was present during some of the recording process, was not consulted during the mixing, nor was he asked for the extensive "three years worth" of notes made by himself and Smith while the album was being finalized.[3] The producer also noted that the track "Ostriches & Chirping", a short instrumental made from sampling and looping the noises made by a toy bird, had nothing to do with Smith and was something that McConnell had recorded by himself.[4] Smith most likely did not intend for this song to be on the album. When asked what he believed the late Smith would think of the released version of the album, McConnell said, "I don’t think he would have delivered {that} record. The record he would have delivered would had more songs, would have had different mixes and {been} a little more in your face."^[1]

Jennifer Chiba, Elliott Smith's live-in girlfriend at the time of his death, was also not consulted while the album was being finalized, although the singer had spent hundreds of hours talking to her about his directions for the record (Spin, Dec. 2004).

Some fans accuse Smith's family and the producers of cutting from the album the darkest songs (such as "True Love", which deals graphically with addiction and rehab, "Abused", and "Suicide Machine") in an attempt to make the album "happier", an accusation that has been denied.[5]

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Elliott Smith except as noted.

"Coast to Coast" – 5:33 sample (help·info)
"Let's Get Lost" – 2:27
"Pretty (Ugly Before)" – 4:45
"Don't Go Down" – 4:34
"Strung Out Again" – 3:12
"A Fond Farewell" – 3:58 sample (help·info)
"King's Crossing" – 4:57
"Ostriches & Chirping" (David McConnell) – 0:33
"Twilight" – 4:29
"A Passing Feeling" – 3:22
"The Last Hour" – 3:27
"Shooting Star" – 6:01
"Memory Lane" – 2:30
"Little One" – 3:14
"A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free" – 4:32

[edit] Outtakes, B-sides, non-album tracks

The following songs were known to have been written and in various stages of recording (with some fully completed) during the Basement era, but were ultimately not included on the 2004 album:

"Abused" (Vocals recorded over the Either/Or outtake in 1996)
"Dancing on the Highway"
"Everything's Okay" (A reworking of the Either/Or outtake, "Pretty Mary K")
"From a Poison Well"
"Let's Turn the Record Over"
"Mr. Goodmorning"
"See You In Heaven"
"Stickman" (Two versions)
"Suicide Machine" (Vocals recorded over the Figure 8 outtake "Tiny Time Machine". Said to be the last song Elliott worked on)
"True Love"

[edit] Other songs from this era

The following songs were played live, mentioned in interviews, or may have been worked on during this era:

"Blue Mood"
"Brand New Game" (originally recorded for XO and Figure 8. May not have been worked on, but was intended to be.}
"Cecilia/Amanda" (originally recorded for XO)
"Going Nowhere" (originally recorded for Either/Or in 1996)
"My New Freedom (Doing Okay, Pretty Good)" (Thought to be reworked into "See You in Heaven")
"Sorry My Mistake" (originally recorded for Figure 8)
"Unlucky Charm"
"You Make it Seem Like Nothing"

[edit] Personnel

Sam Coomes (of Quasi, formerly in Heatmiser) - bass guitar and backup vocals on "Pretty (Ugly Before)"
Steven Drozd (of The Flaming Lips) - drums on "Coast to Coast"
Aaron Embry - keyboards on "Pretty (Ugly Before)"
Scott McPherson - drums on "Pretty (Ugly Before)"
Fritz Michaud - drums on "King's Crossing"
Aaron Sperske - drums on "Coast to Coast"

[edit] Trivia

"Coast to Coast" features poetry by Nelson Gary. Smith told Under the Radar in 2003, "I asked this friend of mine to make up something he could say as fast as he could in fifteen minutes about people healing themselves or being unable to heal themselves. While he's saying this thing there is a main vocal that goes over that."
"Pretty (Ugly Before)" previously appeared on a 2003 single on Suicide Squeeze Records, along with a different version of "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free". According to McConnell, Smith did not intend to have "Pretty (Ugly Before)" on the album.
In "The King's Crossing", after Elliot Smith sings,"So give me one good reason not to do it", a woman's voice can be very faintly heard saying, "Because I love you."
"Twilight" was originally entitled "Somebody's Baby".
If the song "Little One" is played backwards, one can hear some acoustic guitar lines as they were originally recorded, unreversed.
Some of the songs that Smith may have been working on at the time of his death that did not make it onto the fifteen-track disc leaked online about a year after the release of this album. They can be found at http://www.elliottsmithbsides.com/BasementIIDemos.htm and http://www.trashtreasury.com/html/basement-II.html