CD OF THE WEEK

Elliot Smith - From a Basement on the Hill

ELLIOTT SMITH
From a Basement on the Hill Domino
****

At the heart of this emotionally charged posthumous album lies the suicide last autumn of Elliott Smith, a singer-songwriter who in his short 34 years managed to create so many moments of beautifully tender heartbreak that he seemed caught between the love of the angels and the curse of the devil. Smith had his demons: a difficult childhood gave way to a life of addiction and emotional turmoil. Yet his music, from the first notes he played as a teenager in Portland, Oregon, was something that set him apart. His was the slacker generation and he was its bard, an empathetic chronicler of alienation and lost hope. Grim, but beautifully so.

At the time of his death Smith had recorded about 30 new songs, written and produced by himself. His family and friends honed these down to the 15 that appear on this collection. He had intended it to be a double CD that bridged the inventive instrumental flourishes of his Figure 8 album and the simple, affecting intimacy of Either/Or and his earlier work. And this it does, though certainly there are rough edges. But the more you listen, the more the imperfections fade and the songs grow, the haunting Beatle-ish melodies carried by the vulnerability and innocence of Smith's singing and harmonies, such as on the beautiful Twilight or the touching Strung Out Again.

Morbid detectives will find much on which to chew, not least the closing line of the final track: "Shine on me baby cause it's raining in my heart . . ." But this album proves what a dreadful waste Smith's death was. www.sweetadeline.com