The final mixing for New Moon was done by Larry Crane, who is also the archivist for the estate of Elliott Smith. Only three songs have seen prior release all on compilations most extremely limited runs. Like his other work, New Moon reflects the power of Smith's ability to integrate rich, melodic music with poetic, multi-layered lyrics. The album contains 24 songs recorded between 1994-1997, a prolific time in Smith's career, when he recorded his self-titled album and Either/Or (both also released by Kill Rock Stars). On May 8, 2007, Kill Rock Stars will release a double CD of music by Elliott Smith entitled New Moon.

With this, I had way too many songs and no mechanism for picking between them.'Elliott Smith, Tape Op Magazine, 1996, on finishing Either/OrArguably the most gifted song-writer of his generation, Elliott Smith produced a large body of work that includes five solo albums, as well as From a Basement on the Hill (2004), a collection of songs completed before his death in 2003. That's what I'm used to doing, recording all the time and not going, 'What should I record for this record?' Usually I put out whatever happened in the last six months.

'I kept recording more songs with no regard whether or not they were gonna be on anything.

Elliott smith either or recording