I like home recordings and studio recordings just as much as each other - I don't think one is better - but for this record I wanted to see what I could do in a real studio with real producers.

"Went straight through in four years" he explained to Under the Radar in 2003. It featured the return of Rothrock Schnapf Brion and Waronker and was partially recorded at Abbey Road Studios in England with an obvious Beatles influence in the songwriting and production. Crane wrote "I hadn't talked to Elliott in over a year.

Smith's primary instrument was the guitar but he was also proficient with piano clarinet bass guitar drums and harmonica. The autopsy evidence was inconclusive as to whether the wounds were self-inflicted.