Elliot Smith got good again after lacklustre Dreamworks offering Figure Eight, unfortunately he committed suicide (probably) back in 2003 so wasn't around to witness the near universal critical acclaim heaped on From A Basement On The Hill. Sure, it could be argued that a great deal of this was a heady outpouring of Cobain Syndrome but your correspondent can vouch for the general perfectness of the album with a degree of objectivity. If you haven't already bought this, you're wrong.
Speaking of Cobain, this was the year we finally got the much argued about Nirvana boxset. And a gem it was too, though if you're new to Nirvana (and if you are then clearly you're a bit of a nutjob or not from this planet in the first place) then get the studio albums first, since it's a bit of a fanatic-only zone. You can read my extended thoughts on the package here.
That's enough talking about dead people and their posthumous releases for now. Brian Wilson never quite died, he just went a bit mad but, thankfully he got better (eventually) and this was the year we finally got to hear Smile! in the comfort of our own homes. And while it was (mostly) what everyone had hoped for, the version the globe clasped to its collective bosom was more Smile 04 than some of us would have liked. Entirely rerecorded and, for the first time, completed, the only things that prevented it from being proclaimed instantly as a work of divine genius was the passage of time and the lack of the original line-up. Sure, Smile in whatever form it was released could be nothing more than a niggling disappointment after forty-odd years of associated mythologizing but somehow it just didn't sound right. It was the sound of someone trying to recreate the sound of 1967, rather than being it. To paraphrase Roy Walker: it was good, but it wasn't right.
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Article comments
1 - Craig Lyndall
"If you haven't already bought this, you're wrong."
Just hilarious man. Good line.
I have been a Smith fan since Good Will Hunting, and while this doesn't make me old school or anything, I went out and bought everything. I liked Figure 8 even though it wasn't as good as some of his other stuff.
I am sure a lot of the acclaim is the Cobain syndrome, but regardless, I am happy a lot of people are hearing Smith's final album. Some of the stuff is really haunting considering the way it all ended.