Figure 8 by Elliott Smith

Figure 8, Elliott Smith's fifth studio album, came out on DreamWorks on April 18, 2000, his second record for the major label and, as it turned out, the last he released in his lifetime. He spent two years making it, from 1998 into 2000, moving between a pile of different studios, with Rob Schnapf credited as producer.

That whispery, fragile voice is still at the center, winding through chord changes that never quite land where you expect, but the frame around it has grown bigger and brighter, with power-pop hooks and full arrangements lighting up the melancholy rather than hiding it. "Happiness" and "Son of Sam" went out as singles ahead of the album, and the whole thing plays like a sunny pop record written by someone who can't stop worrying.

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