Expanded edition of second Elliott Smith album released for 25th anniversary

(Image credit: JJ Gonson)

Elliott Smith's second album is to be released in deluxe edition form to mark its 25th anniversary. Elliott Smith was originally released on the Kill Rock Stars label in 1995, as the follow-up to Smith's debut album Roman Candle.

Kill Rock Stars founder Slim Moon says, "As the person who originally signed him to the label, starting with the Needle In The Hay single and this self-titled album, I am especially passionate about putting forward reminders of this phase of his career - his magic as a solo performer and as a writer of songs for simply guitar and voice with little or no accompaniment.

"I also really want him to be remembered for his humour, warmth, and absurdist sense of irony."

Needle In The Hay was the only single taken from the album. It has now been remastered and given a new lyric video.

The deluxe reissue of Elliott Smith comes with a previously unreleased live album Live at Umbra Penumbra, which is the earliest known recording of the singer performing as a solo act. The recording was unearthed by Smith family archivist Larry Crane.

"There are fan-traded MP3s out there of this show," says Crane, "but when people hear what I was able to extract from this original tape, they’ll be shocked."

These two albums come encased within a 52-page book featuring handwritten lyrics and reminiscences, as well as and two dozen previously unseen photographs of Smith taken by JJ Gonson.

"I’m determined to show something about Elliott that I feel the media didn’t," Gonson tells The Guardian. "He was a fantastically clever person with a terrific sense of humour and a huge heart."

Elliott Smith is released on August 28. Smith died in 2003.

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.