Elliott Smith's final studio album, From A Basement On The Hill, is out now in remastered form, released on vinyl, cd, and digitally on Friday Nov. 1. It first released 20 years ago in 20, following Smith's death.
Larry Crane, Smith's official archivist, says:
For the remastering of Elliott Smith's From a Basement on The Hill, I began the process by retrieving all the 20 year old master tapes from Elliott's archive storage. From there, Adam Gonsalves at Telegraph Mastering did new tape transfers on his highly-customized Ampex tape deck. When comparing the new transfers against previous ones, plus the existing CD master, we felt that the audio quality Adam had pulled off the original 1/4-inch tapes of Rob Schnapf's mixes (done with Joanna Bolme in 2004) was of a higher quality than what the public had heard on the original release. At Jackpot! Recording Studio, I painstakingly prepped the digital files ahead of mastering, cleaning up errant noises and a few incredibly loud guitar squeaks. When we sat down at Telegraph to do the final analog mastering, Adam skillfully cleared up some of the tones and brought a nice consistency to this varied collection of songs. As we worked, I reflected on the fact that Elliott had asked me to come stay with him in Los Angeles in 2003, to sort out this album and see it finished. He passed away about ten days before I was due to fly down. Now, with the 2024 remaster of From a Basement on The Hill, I felt more connected to this record that I never got to work on 20 years ago. This is the third of Elliott Smith's albums that Adam Gonsalves and I have remastered together, and we hope that his fans enjoy the clarity and emotion that comes through these songs.
And Adam Gonsalves adds:
Working from the original sources on From a Basement on The Hill was different from the other Elliott Smith album remasters Larry Crane and I have done together. Many of the mixes felt wild and idiosyncratic. The creative verve of the album is something we strove to honor, and we hope you enjoy this remaster as much as we do.
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Tracklist:
- Coast to Coast
- Let's Get Lost
- Pretty (Ugly Before)
- Don't Go Down
- Strung Out Again
- A Fond Farewell
- King's Crossing
- Ostrich & Chirping
- Twilight
- A Passing Feeling
- The Last Hour
- Shooting Star
- Memory Lane
- Little One
- A Distorted Reality is Now A Necessity to be Free
