Elliott Smith followed up XO two years later with 2000’s Figure 8, which would end up as his final release before his suicide.

Figure 8 was his most baroque and expansive album yet, and perhaps his most critically-acclaimed. Smith had a larger profile now, at least by the standards of an indie singer-songwriter, and he reacted to the expanding spotlight by going to wonderful new places musically.

Personally, it was quite a different story, but with Smith, who from the start projected a tortured persona, it was never clear how truly tortured he was.

Continue reading →