Figure 8

Figure 8 is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, released on August 18, 2000 by Dreamworks. This was Elliott’s final finished album before his death.

It contains sixteen songs which were recorded from 1998 to 2000 at several locations: Sunset Sound Recorders, Capitol Studios, Sonora Studio – all in Los Angeles, as well as Abbey Road Studios in London, England.

The title of the album is thought to be taken from a song by Schoolhouse Rock!. Smith covered this song, but it did not make the final track listing. Regarding the album’s title, Smith said this in a May 11, 2000 article in Boston Herald:

I liked the idea of a self-contained, endless pursuit of perfection. But I have a problem with perfection. I don’t think perfection is very artful. But there’s something I liked about the image of a skater going in this endless twisted circle that doesn’t have any real endpoint. So the object is not to stop or arrive anywhere; it’s just to make this thing as beautiful as they can.

Smith described the songs on the album as “more fragmented and dreamlike”.

The album cover features a photograph by Autumn de Wilde, depicting a wall at 4334 W. Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles. Since Elliott’s death in 2003 it has become a memorial to him.