Elliott Smith – Either/Or (1997)

I don't think there's any other musician that has had as big of an impact on me than Elliott Smith. I found his music in the early 00s and ever since then, his albums have been among my most treasured ones. I have even on many occasion called his XO the greatest album ever released. Either/Or precedes the XO era and the songs are rawer. For many people, this is the ultimate Elliott Smith album. I personally really like the added piano sounds on XO and Figure 8, but I still have to admit there's something beautifully haunting in Either/Or's acoustic guitars and Smith's whispering vocals. This album also includes a couple of my favourite Elliott Smith tunes. It was only later on when I realised that Elliott Smith's music had been played in the film Good Will Hunting. He had become quite well known in the US as a result, but to me it took a friend's recommendation to get to know his music.



The title of the album refers to Søren Kierkegaard's book with the same name. Smith studied philosophy in Massachusettes before his musical career. There are some philosophical references in his music, but on the other hand I've always liked his lyrics precisely because there's something very straightforward in them. The lyrics are not filled with difficult metaphors or unnecessary poetics. To me at least, the lyrics sound like fairly honest stories of heartbreak and life. I have on many occasion gotten some comfort in his lyrics when I've felt like I've experienced similar things in my own life. I don't always pay attention to lyrics when I'm listening to music. I have to see special effort to think about the lyrics. With Elliott Smith, I have quite naturally heard the lyrics and enjoyed them very much.

The album starts with strange doubled guitar riff in the song Speed Trials. Having only heard XO before this album, I was surprised about how lo-fi this opening song sounded like the first time I heard it. It's still one of the least approachable songs on this album. Interesting choice for an opening song. Alameda is classic Elliott Smith. The melodies are heartbreakingly sad and the fragile vocals sound like he's really meaning every word he's saying. Ballad of Big Nothing is one demonstration of Smith's superb guitar skills. I didn't realise it back in the day when I was just focusing on his singing, but he really is a fantastic guitars player as well. Between the Bars is one of my all time favourite songs. I've played it myself a lot and I noticed a while ago that so have many others. It has over a 100 cover versions in Spotify. This is the original however and I can't think of anyone performing the song better than this. Pictures of Me starts really quietly but it grows nicely into one of the rockiest songs on this album. The vocal harmonies in the chorus are fantastic. No Name No. 5 is a song naming convention known from Smith's debut album Roman Candle. On that album he has four songs with no name, so this is the fifth one. Rose Parade has more major chords than the first half of the album. It doesn't mean that this is somehow a cheery tune. It's just less obviously sad than the other songs. Punch and Judy has one of the greatest productions on this album. The sounds already kind of point to the direction where the sounds were going on the later albums, since you can hear the gentle organ sounds in the background. Angeles has some phenomenal guitar picking. Playing songs like this is something I really want to learn, but it's very difficult. This is one of my favourite tracks on the album. Cupid's Trick has a very menacing sounding beginning, but as the song goes on it reveals some of the loudest production on the album. 2:45 AM sounds exactly like the title suggests. It sounds like a song that has been written in the early hours of the morning without sleep. I myself have often written my best songs in the middle of the night when I haven't been able to sleep. The album ends in a beautiful song Say Yes, which is one of the most endearing songs Elliott Smith has ever written. It always makes me smile and think that even though bad things happen, things will always look a bit brighter after a while.

For a musician who started out in the 90s, Elliott Smith has very few music videos. I guess he was never that much of a performer as he was a musician who liked to be on his own. There's an intimate video of him playing Between the Bars in a simple well-lit room with some sequences from him on the town. As you can see from the video, he looks pretty shy and mainly keeps his eyes closed, but the music is absolutely beautiful.

On later albums I'm going to talk more about Smith's death and descent into madness, but with Either/Or I don't feel like that's necessary yet. Sure the album is melancholic and there's a lot of sadness in him, but this is still the Elliott Smith he was before he became quite famous and started losing it. This is the Elliott Smith who surprised everyone with his intimate and beautiful acoustic songs after playing rock music in Heatmiser. This is Elliott Smith playing exactly the kind of music he wanted to play.

Listen to the album on Spotify.