"Pretty (Ugly Before)" is a song by American singer-songwriter

Elliott Smith Steven Paul Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003), known as Elliott Smith, was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, raised primarily in Texas, and lived much of his life in Portland, Oregon, whe ...

. It was released as a limited-edition

7" vinyl In music, a single is a type of release of a song recording of fewer tracks than an album ( LP), typically one or two tracks. A single can be released for sale to the public in a variety of physical or digital formats. Singles may be standa ...

single in 2003 by record label

Suicide Squeeze Suicide Squeeze Records is a Seattle, Washington-based independent record label that releases rock, pop, and metal music. Suicide Squeeze releases content on vinyl, CD, cassette, and digital. The label has also released comedy and performance ar ...

, Smith's final single released during his lifetime. It was later re-released by

Domino Dominoes is a family of tile-based games played with gaming pieces. Each domino is a rectangular tile, usually with a line dividing its face into two square ''ends''. Each end is marked with a number of spots (also called '' pips'' or ''dots'' ...

in 2004, and appeared on Smith's posthumous final album, ''

From a Basement on the Hill ''From a Basement on the Hill'' is the sixth and final studio album by the American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. Recorded from 2000 to 2003, and faced with multiple delays due to Smith's personal problems that resulted in his death, it was re ...

''. The song features (post-

bridge A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...

) backing vocals from Smith's former

Heatmiser Heatmiser was an American rock band, formed in Portland, Oregon, in October 1991. Consisting of Elliott Smith (guitar and vocals), Neil Gust (guitar and vocals), Brandt Peterson (bass; later replaced by Sam Coomes, frontman of Quasi) and Ton ...

bandmate

Sam Coomes Samuel J. Coomes (born April 23, 1964) is an American musician, and one half of the indie band Quasi, along with his ex-wife, drummer Janet Weiss. Coomes was also a member of the mid-1980s underground pop band The Donner Party and replaced Brand ...

Release

"Pretty (Ugly Before)" was released as a limited-edition 7" vinyl single in 2003 by record label Suicide Squeeze. The single did not chart in the United States. It was re-released in 2004 by record label Domino, reaching number 85 in the UK Singles Chart, and appeared on Smith's posthumous final album, ''From a Basement on the Hill''. An alternate version of the single's

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

, "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free", also appears on the album.

Recording

"Pretty (Ugly Before)" was recorded at

Fort Apache Studios Fort Apache Studios is a New England recording studio focusing on alternative rock sessions produced there since 1986. It is currently located in New Hampshire. History The studio was initially built by a collective begun in 1985 by musician/p ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, by engineer Matthew Ellard and assisted by Andrew Beckman, while Elliott was on tour with his band. Beckman recalls "Elliott was very shy at first and kept his distance. Once we started talking about gear, he opened up quickly. He was excited about the Line 6 delay pedal he was using for the backwards delay at the end of the song. During the first take, I gave him a huge thumbs up and he couldn't help but smile." The Mellotron-like keyboard part during the intro was created using a

Casio SK-1 The Casio SK-1 is a small sampling keyboard made by Casio in 1985. It has 32 small sized piano keys, four-note polyphony, with a sampling bit depth of 8 bit PCM and a sample rate of 9.38 kHz for 1.4 seconds, a built-in microphone and line level ...

sampler, which the keyboard player

Aaron Embry Aaron Embry (born November 10, 1975, Bellflower, California) is an American songwriter and record producer. A periodic studio musician and touring pianist with artists such as Elliott Smith and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, he has also h ...

sang one note into then spread the sample out across the keyboard. Because the SK-1 has no internal storage, he had to do this every time he wanted to use the sound. "I remember scrambling around trying to find a combination of adapters that would allow us to get a mini sized output from the Casio into our

Neve 8078 The Neve 80 Series are a series of hand-wired analogue mixing consoles designed and manufactured from 1968 to 1979 by Neve Electronics, founded by the English electronics engineer Rupert Neve. Renowned for their sound quality, Neve 80 Series co ...

console. Thankfully we got it working, as the sound is haunting and a perfect intro to this amazing tune," remembered Beckman. Smith recorded his vocals alone in the control room on a Neumann U67 mic while the band and crew enjoyed a dinner in the adjacent kitchen.

Track listing

References

{{Elliott Smith Elliott Smith songs 2003 singles 2004 songs Songs written by Elliott Smith