Singer/songwriter Elliott Smith has completed work on his forthcoming album, tentatively titled "From a Basement on the Hill," according to manager Scott Booker. While label and release date informati

Singer/songwriter Elliott Smith has completed work on his forthcoming album, tentatively titled "From a Basement on the Hill," according to manager Scott Booker. While label and release date information for the set -- an interim project between DreamWorks releases -- is still unknown, labels such as Touch & Go, Bong Load, and Smith's pre-DreamWorks home, Kill Rock Stars, are rumored to be contenders.



"The stuff at moments sounds like [the 1997 album] 'Either/Or' and then turns around and rocks like nothing he's ever recorded before," Booker writes in a post on the Smith fan site Sweet Adeline. Fifteen songs with titles such as "Shooting Star," "A Passing Feeling," "Circuit Rider," and "Let's Get Lost" have been completed, but Booker adds, "some might not end up on the new record and titles can change."



"Elliott plays all of the music except drums on one of the tracks," Booker says of the forthcoming disc, which was engineered by Goldenboy's Dave MacConnell. That lone, unnamed track features collaborative drum work from both Steven Drozd of the Flaming Lips and Aaron Sperske of Beachwood Sparks. Material Smith had recorded for the project with producer/musician Jon Brion, Folk Implosion's Russ Pollard, and Goldenboy's MacConnell and Shon Sullivan will not make the final cut.



"Basement" is Smith's first album since 2000's "Figure 8," which debuted at No. 7 on Billboard's Top Internet Albums chart and has sold 132,000 copies in the U.S. to date, according to SoundScan.



In related news, Smith provides backing vocals to "Tore Up and Broke," one of four vinyl-only bonus tracks appearing on the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's latest Matador album, "Plastic Fang." Smith also lends a rarity, "Bottle Up & Explode (Alternate Version)" to Wishing Tree Records' "Amos House Collection Volume 2," a compilation to benefit a Rhode Island homeless shelter.