Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	81/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Entertainment Weekly	B−
The Guardian
Los Angeles Times
Melody Maker
NME	8/10
Pitchfork Media	6.9/10
Q
Rolling Stone
Spin	7/10

Figure 8 is the fifth studio album by American singer-songwriter Elliott Smith, and the final album he completed before his death. It was recorded from 1998 to 2000 at numerous studios and released on April 18, 2000 through DreamWorks Records. Preceded by the singles "Happiness" and "Son of Sam", Figure 8 was Smith's second release on a major label.

Initially titled Place Pigalle, Figure 8 was recorded at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, Sonora Studios in Los Angeles, Capitol Studios in Hollywood and Abbey Road Studios in London.

The title 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". With Figure 8, Smith attempted to create "a happy-sounding record".

Producer and friend, David McConnell, later recounts Elliott's re-telling of a psychotic episode during the recording of the album, saying:

“Elliott told me about having a psychotic episode while he was [recording Figure 8]. He was fed up with the current state of his life. A lot of people from the label were telling him he needed to get it together. He was so sick of people talking about the future. So he carved the word ‘now’ into his arm with a knife. And he sat down at the piano and wrote ‘Everything Means Nothing to Me’ as the blood was dripping down his arm.”

The wall Smith stands in front of in Autumn de Wilde's photograph on the cover of the album exists in Los Angeles, and since his death it has become a memorial to him. It is located at 4334 W. Sunset Boulevard, which is a store by the name of Solutions Audio-Video Repair, just east of the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Fountain Avenue. It has at some stages been covered with written messages containing lyrics and personal messages to Smith, as well as displaying a stencil of Smith in order to mimic the photo on the album cover. It is regularly graffiti-ed over, followed by regular restorations from fans.

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Wikipedia