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About Either/Or
Amazon.com Blessed with the voice of a wispy angel, Elliott Smith creates sad little pop songs, which, like the work of Nick Drake (to whom he's been compared) threaten to disappear into the night air. Several of the tracks here were featured in Gus Van Zant's movie Good Will Hunting, and they're among the album's best (though "Miss Misery," nominated for an Academy Award is only available on the soundtrack album). "Angeles" and "Say Yes" are bittersweet laments that feature Smith's idiosyncratic guitar picking, which is well served by the album's decidedly low-fi production. --Rob O'Connor Product Description Heart sewn firmly to his sleeve, Elliott continues his tuneful dissection of life & what makes it difficult. Review Whispering his way into your heart with the voice of an angel, Elliott's new solo record, Either/Or, is the type of music you'd hear in Heaven s elevator: While everything's nice and pretty, you re still pretty bummed out that you died. Smith shares all his personal secrets with us like other Smiths before him. (i.e. The Smiths, The Cure's Robert Smith, etc.) The result is nothing less than Zoloftian genius. I'll put money down that says this is the best album Kill Rock Stars releases for a couple of months. --Pitchfork ''Drink up baby / Stay up all night / With the things you could do / You won t but you might / The potential you ll be / That you'll never see / The promises you ll only make''. So starts ''Between The Bars'', from Elliott Smith's third solo album Either/Or. It's as good a statement as any to describe the mood of this collection of songs about drug abuse, failed relationships and the pitfalls of stardom. Not that Elliott Smith the songwriter or performer isn't making the most of his own potential here. It's the downfall of his characters. Over the course of his first two solo outings, Roman Candle (Cavity Search) and his self-titled second effort (Kill Rock Stars), his fans are left to wonder if he isn't writing entirely autobiographically. It would be hard to imagine that the majority of his lyrics, so sincere and detailed, could be a work of fiction. With his admitted past drug use and problems with relationships (both family and otherwise), it seems clear these songs are him, raw and unedited. Elliott Smith was still a member of Portland's Heatmiser at the time he recorded either/or, though that group would be broken up when it was released. Smith shared lead vocal duties with Neil Gust in Heatmiser, though he found himself recording and releasing his own acoustic-based material. His own music was much more sparse and personal than that of his previous group, which in no small part led to his breakout success. His bleak, Dylanesque lyrics have garnered a large, rabid, though specific audience, an indie-rock fanbase who can see the truth in the visuals Smith conjures. Film director Gus Van Sant was an early fan of his solo work, using many songs from either/or to underscore the drama of his 1997 film Good Will Hunting. The soundtrack spawned the Academy Award-nominated ''Miss Misery'', which led to an Oscar night performance, wedged between Trisha Yearwood and Celine Dion, of all people. During his award show performance, Smith looked as out of place and fragile as his song did, amongst the other nominees and their big, insincere songs. Overnight, the press tried to fit him with the mantle of (reluctant) spokesman for a young, seemingly lost generation. ...Smith has no interest in the attention he gets, or in the ensuing fame. He may be putting his life out there for the scrutiny of all, but he stills wants his privacy. This reluctance to play the game of celebrity is furthered in ''Angeles'', where ''Picking up the ticket / Shows there s money to be made / Go on and lose the gamble / That s the history of the trade''. But diatribes against fame and the press aren't the only topics on Smith's mind. His songs of heartache rival anyone else's, and with his whisper-thin voice, threat
