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From a Basement on the Hill
by Elliott Smith
ALBUM RANKINGS:
Ratings and rankings are based on all available critic reviews and awards.
Overall Rating:
3.5286
Avg. Critic Score:
3.3044
From a Basement on the Hill Rank 3 Reviews
Critic Review Summary
Click on the numbers to the right of the graph to see reviews of that rating. 
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Drowned In SoundThe most fitting of testaments -- a flawed, courageous, beautiful and intimately human portrait of the self. ...more
Launch.comOne of his best. ...more
The New York TimesThe low-fi yet meticulous arrangements only add to the sense of isolation and the poignancy of the ...more
Dusted MagazineOn the whole Basement is noisy and rough, and often sounds more like the best record Heatmiser never made than the next Elliott Smith album. ...more
BillboardSmith bundles subtlety and ferocity to create one of his heart-aching best. ...more
Critic Reviews continued...
PrefixMagThe most horrific circumstance surrounding Elliott Smith's (alleged) suicide, even more haunting than the songwriter's decision to plunge a steak knife through his heart, is how unsurprising that decision was. Few other artists, living or dead, ...more
PrefixMagFrom the Basement is a painful reminder of a record that couldve been and a life that shouldnt have ended. ...more
ShakingThrough.netHill feels more like a retrospective than a steady gallop toward the next stage in Smith's artistic advancement. ...more
Austin ChronicleMore structured and electric than Either/Or, but without the overproduction of Figure 8, Basement is the next logical step. ...more
BBC MusicFrom A Basement On The Hill is possibly one of the saddest records ever made. ...more
PitchforkThe most disheartening thing about From a Basement on the Hill is its plainness-- it's neither a perfect record (and not one of Smith's best) nor the kind of colossal disaster that could be angrily pinned on money-hungry handlers and desperate fans. ...more
Pitch Fork MediaPontificating at length about the colossal sadness of Elliott Smith's discography might seem reductive or stupidly obvious, but "sad" still stands as the single most accurate label ever slapped onto any of the late singer/songwriter's records. ...more
Rolling StoneThis is an album about the seductions of oblivion, and a few of the more densely arranged songs mimic the characters in the lyrics, stumbling around without quite connecting. ...more
Paste MagazineA fitting farewell to a distinctive voice silenced too early. ...more
The Onion (A.V. Club)Slightly overlong and sometimes stitched-together, From A Basement On The Hill sags in spots.... Yet in the end, the album still earns its place--not at the top, and unfortunately as a bookend--in a jarringly important body of work. ...more
No RipcordThe good news is that there is no real filler on the album, but this uniformity of quality equates to an album where every song is good, but where few are really great. ...more
Dot MusicA fine collection of songs from an immensely talented, tragically lost soul. ...more
Rolling StoneFor many fans, Elliott Smith's greatest gift to the world was his sadness. He was thirty-four when he died on October 21st, 2003, from two stab wounds to the chest. But the more we learned about his death, the less we knew. For a while, ...more
RollingStoneThis is an album about the seductions of oblivion, and a few of the more densely arranged songs mimic the characters in the lyrics, stumbling around without quite connecting. ...more
Almost CoolWhile it makes a lot of musical leaps (it's probably the most "experimental" work he's done), not all of them work, but there are still some great moments for fans of his work here. ...more
Neumu.netThis final record is neither focused nor infallible, instead a rarer glimpse at a man whose creative doorways, once the source of so much hope and inspiration, had become outnumbered by his demons. ...more
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