Releases

Elliott Smith fans outraged by debut album reissue

By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 25 March 2010

Elliott Smith fans (well, some of them, at least) are reportedly outraged by the news that the late singer-songwriter’s debut album, ‘Roman Candle’, will be re-released in remastered form next month. The outrage has been unleashed online despite the fact that none of said fans have actually heard the new version yet. It seems said fans are concerned that the charm of the album will be lost in cleaning up its lo-fi production.

Larry Crane, a friend of Smith and archivist for his estate, who has overseen the new version of the album told Spinner: “I’m getting pretty much bashed around there on message boards for something nobody’s heard. Some people are like, ‘Oh my god, how can you do that?’ I’m not smashing it and flatlining it like a Metallica record. My first thought was: ‘Am I doing the right thing?’ I said to my girlfriend: ‘My god, should I be doing this?’ She said: ‘Are you making it sound better?’ I said: ‘I guess.’ She said: ‘How can that be wrong?'”

On the remastering process (or rather mastering, it having never actually been through the mastering process before its original release), Crane added: “I really felt that the album, some of the guitar squeaks when he was changing chords – he used really cheap mics on the record – some sounds are really jarring. I was very timid at first, but the more I listened and altered the volume on those squeaks a tiny bit; you can still hear them – they kind of punctuate the phrases and such – but all of a sudden the guitar playing just became more clear. I know it’s going to sound different to some people, but I cannot imagine that they’d have a problem with what we’ve done”.

‘Roman Candle’ and a new version of Smith’s posthumous ‘From A Basement On The Hill’ will be released by Kill Rock Stars on 5 Apr.