Acclaimed singer-songwriter Elliott Smith died Tuesday afternoon at the age of 34. In what was deemed an apparent suicide, Smith sustained a single stab wound to the chest. Although the news of his death came as a shock to his fans, Smith was widely believed to be troubled. He was a recovering alcoholic, and rumors of possible drug addiction and depression circulated around him. As Smith began to cancel live performances and repeatedly delay his unfinished sixth solo album, fans began to worry about his health.
In sharp contrast to his difficult personal life, however, was Smith's music career, one of the great success stories of the last decade. After working his way up in the mid-'90s in the rock band Heatmiser, Smith established his own voice on three solo albums released on independent record labels. The culmination of these albums, 1997's flawless , is perhaps the most fully realized singer-songwriter record since Bob Dylan's .
Smith's songs, a delicate mix of strummed or fingerpicked guitar and whispered vocals, balanced with a keen sense of melody to counter their dark subject matter, resonated not only with his ever-increasing fanbase, but also director Gus Van Sant. Smith received a career boost when Van Sant opted to use many of his songs in the film \Good Will Hunting."" A subsequent Oscar nomination for ""Miss Misery,"" a new song Smith penned for the film, sparked even more interest in the singer, allowing him to sign with the major label Dreamworks, where he took advantage of the increased recording budget and expanded his audience considerably. , the album Smith was working on before his death, was his follow-up to 2000's pop-oriented .
Critics frequently viewed Smith as an updated version of the cult folk singer Nick Drake and now, with Smith's tragic, premature death these comparisons will only become more common. The truth is, however, that Smith accomplished more in his career than Drake ever did. While Drake was an attractive man playing popular music, Smith was a homely outsider with a thin voice and tastes that could not have been any less radio-friendly. The commercial success that Smith did receive was obtained on the strength of his songs alone. It is these intimate yet universal songs that ensure Smith's legacy will live on for years after his death and will earn him a cult following larger than those of Nick Drake's or Jeff Buckley's.
After Smith's big break in the late '90s, the music industry desperately tried to recruit more singer-songwriters like him, always without avail. Now that he is gone, labels will undoubtedly try harder than ever to find an artist touted as ""the next Elliott Smith,"" but his fans know those efforts will not prove fruitful. There will not be another Elliott Smith.
