By Marisa Franchini

Last Wednesday, the world lost Elliott Smith. Luckily, he left behind five solo recordings for us all to listen to and try to figure out what was going on in his head. In a 1998 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Smith said, “I don’t feel like my songs are particularly fragile or revealing. It’s not like a diary, and they’re not intended to be any sort of super intimate confessional singer-songwriterish thing.” Intent aside, I, for one, have always found his music nothing but fragile and revealing, yet strangely restrained. His music is, sometimes dark, sometimes upbeat, but always sincere. But Smith was always known for downplaying his impact and importance. In 1992, Smith formed the band Heatmiser and released three full-lengths with them. But it was in 1996, when he released his bare and confessional solo debut, “Roman Candle,” that his career began to take off. In 1997, his song Miss Misery, from the “Good Will Hunting” soundtrack, was nominated for an Oscar. I once met Smith when he was playing a free show at an outdoor stage in my hometown. He casually walked out from backstage to watch the opening band. No one in the crowd recognized him. He was a very small man with a face that avoided close-ups. When I shyly approached him, he seemed more afraid of me than I was of him, and I was pretty nervous. At the time of his death, he had been working on an album for the past two years, which was supposed to be released this year. It is being said that Smith had laid down more than 30 new tracks for the record. When, or on what label, the album will come out on is now unknown. Its working title is “From a Basement, On a Hill.” Smith had been rumored for years to be battling drug and alcohol addictions. Smith’s live-in girlfriend found him last Tuesday evening dead in his apartment in Los Angeles. He had a single, self-inflicted stab wound to his chest.

Discography:* 1994 Roman Candle Cavity Search 1995 Elliott Smith Kill Rock Stars 1997 Either/Or Kill Rock Stars 1998 XO Dreamworks 2000 Figure Eight Dreamworks *Other appearances on “About a Boy” and “Good Will Hunting” Soundtracks.