On a recent listen to all of Elliott Smith's albums, what struck me was how often 3/4 time shows up through the albums:

either/or
between the bars

elliott smith
satellite
good to go
the white lady loves you more

xo
waltz #2, xo
pitseleh
waltz #1

figure 8
In the lost and found (honky bach)
easy way out
pretty mary k
i better be quiet now

Elliott Smith essentially wrote in two time meters, 4/4 and 3/4 (with exceptions of course - Color Bars sounds like it's 2/4). Of these, 3/4 seems to me his signature, the meter that you immediately recognize as his. Think Pitseleh, Between the Bars, and XO (Waltz #2). There is something tumbling or inevitable when Elliott uses this meter. I learned the rotary waltz to xo for instance. It's a series of steps that repeats without end. Some people like to give the second count more time and the third the least, and so propel themselves back into the first, but this dance at heart is one long perpetual circling motion.

What better framework for setting a melodic song? Between the Bars is exactly this, one long melodic line, beginning where it ends. Elliott never stops singing in this song except to breathe. Pitseleh is an interesting song since it seems made of fragments, strung together by the guitars picking the first note of each measure. This is an unexpected, unintuitive melody - you wouldn't expect to hear someone humming this. It's a melody that would be impossible in any other time.

This is not to say his 4/4 songs are obvious. Southern Belle is in 4/4 but rushes forward with a momentum built from the sudden barre chord changes. Elliott's alt-rock background was important and stayed with him till the end. The first song of Basement on the Hill carries that same quality. But Elliott Smith did leave Heatmiser after all, and it was his intensely personal music that we know him for.

Basement on the Hill. Listen to the difference between track 6 (Fond Farewell) and track 5 (Strung Out Again). The difference between a song Elliott finished and stamped with his approval and something he did not is amazing. Everything he touched did not turn to gold, but when he was calling the shots, more often than not, it did. Basement on the Hill is unfinished but offers us a couple great songs, and amazing one, Pretty (Ugly Before). The best songs, Let’s Get Lost, Pretty (Ugly Before), and Fond Farewell, were probably written several years before the album release, judging from live performances. The overdone treatment on "Coast to Coast" creates an intense psychological effect, but this same treatment sinks “Shooting Star.” Hopefully someone (Mary Lou Lord?) will give this beautiful song the delivery it deserves. The exclusion  of “I Figured You Out” (Check out Mary Lou Lord's take) is also too bad. It must have been a lot of work to produce this album, and the producers have done this ably, given the circumstance. It strikes a balance between giving us glimpses of some fragments Elliott was working on his final days and songs he finished while in his brilliant period. Before the release, many fans including myself wondered why only one album of material would be released if two had been recorded. Now their decision makes sense.

I can’t help but wonder, how many more songs were there? In an interview, Elliott said he had recorded hours of material on his 4-track when he was young. He said, “I wish I could release an album every 6 months, but that’s not how the beast works." Can you imagine listening to Elliott assembling the guitars on Condor Ave.? Or the alternate lines he might have taken with Kiwwi Maddog 20/20? He was the furthest thing from a Mendelssohn (see aborted songs in later years), but that's not how the beast works, as they say.