Elliott Smith albums given 50th birthday digital deluxe reissues

A number of rare and unreleased Elliott Smith tracks have been unleashed as part of 50th birthday celebrations for the late artist.

Tuesday, August 6th marked wha would have been the 50th birthday of music icon Elliott Smith. Born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1969, Smith formally entered the world of music in 1991, forming Heatmiser alongside university classmate Neil Gust.

Kicking off a solo career in 1994, Smith would go on to release five studio albums over the next six years, before tragically taking his own life in 2003.

While the posthumous From A Basement On The Hill was unleashed in 2004, numerous opportunities have been taken over the ensuring 16 years in order to help celebrate the life and legacy of this stunning artist.

Now, with August 6th marking what would have been the 50th birthday of Elliott Smith, two of the artist’s most famous records have been re-issued with a series of special bonus tracks.

As Pitchfork notes, 1998’s XO and 2000’s Figure 8 have been given a special treatment on streaming services, with the two albums that Elliot Smith released on Dreamworks being appended with bonus tracks.

While XO features a run of alternate versions, B-sides, and unreleased tracks, it closes things off with ‘Miss Misery’, the Academy Award-nominated song that Smith contributed to the Good Will Hunting soundtrack that same year.

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Meanwhile, Figure 8 features a similar collection of songs, including the title track, which had been recorded for the Schoolhouse Rock! compilation, and a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Because’, which had featured on the American Beauty soundtrack in 1999.

Various posthumous compilations and demos have been released since Smith’s passing in 2003, with the most recent being 2016’s soundtrack to Heaven Adores You, a Nickolas Rossi-directed documentary about the life and music of this iconic musician.