The personal becomes the universal in rare occasions. Elliott Smith’s music is one of those occasions.
Smith’s records are confidential confessions he intended for everyone to hear. Listening to these songs can feel like eavesdropping. The themes and stories in his music—mental illness, depression, addiction, loneliness—combined with his spider-webbed vocals and layered acoustic guitar bring colorful textures to his records.
For the 25th anniversary of Smith’s self-titled second album Elliott Smith (1995), the indie label Kill Rock Stars is commemorating the milestone with a special expanded edition set for arrival this Friday, August 28th. In addition to a remastering of the original record itself, the reissued package includes a second disc featuring Smith’s September 1994 live performance at Portland’s Umbra Penumbra, the earliest known recording of him as a solo act. His voice is cracked and raspy. At one point he tells the crowd, “if there’s anything anybody wants to hear that I can play, let me know.” He’s earnest when he replies, “I know that song.” Then he plays “Condor Avenue” and a few other tracks from his debut LP Roman Candle, released just a few months prior to the performance.
Live at Umbra Penumbra is the best possible document of Smith as an artist. It organically combines all the things his records do—the delicate fretwork, the closeness of the mouth to the mic, the intimacy—and captures them in real time. The chatter of the crowd stops almost as soon as his hand touches the strings. Smith talks to the audience, and at one point asks for a guitar to play a song he “wrote today that’s probably kind of bad.” “I don’t have good handwriting,” he tells them. And someone laughs.
When a recording is unearthed from a time before every single moment of life was documented, it thickens the discourse, adding a piece of the puzzle no one left a place for. A 52-page coffee table book comes with this special, expanded edition, including handwritten lyrics—you can be the judge of his handwriting—and reminiscences. Also included are two dozen photographs by JJ Gonson.
For those of us who weren’t there to watch Smith’s career as it happened, his death casts a long shadow over his records and legacy. His sound and ethos have been covered, imitated, and honored by everyone from Billie Eilish to Frank Ocean. You can hear it on Justin Vernon’s 2007 debut as Bon Iver on For Emma, Forever Ago, and on Phoebe Bridgers’ recently released album Punisher. Elliott Smith records are like the stations of the indie cross. They’re something to look to when you’re feeling lonely, a reminder that you are, in fact, not alone.
Smith passed away in 2003 by way of an apparent suicide. And even though he couldn’t go on, his music remains a foundation for generations to come. And if you’re new to his music, start with his namesake recording, Elliott Smith.
BUY Elliott Smith: Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition here
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