From a Basement on the Hill self-deprecates and pleads for humility. Smith paints caricatures of life in clever rhymes, all the while never seeming to care if you buy into his viewpoint. It’s really up to you as the listener, the empathizer of Elliott Smith, to answer the questions he rhetorically poses -- and to answer them in reflection of yourself. On the authoritative closing track, he seems to be howling to the moon, crooning in a last-ditch effort for human salvation: "You people disappoint me / You people raking in on the world / The devil’s script sells / You have the heart of a blackbird / Shine on me, baby, ’cause it’s raining in my heart."

This record wouldn’t be any less potent if he were still alive. I would be just as scared. But, you know, it’s also catchy enough in its tone that you can turn it on and just enjoy the music while you drive or make evening supper.

Time to go back to bed. Sleep makes you forget, it calms the nerves. Maybe Elliott Smith just needed more sleep on occasion.

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