XO

Elliott Smith

album cover

Artful Miniatures of Classic Pop

Elliott Smith was a welcome rarity in the melodically challenged 1990s. He was a singer-songwriter who related to the raw emotions vented by grunge singers, but was also conversant in the highly textured expressions of the Beatles and other pop tunesmiths.

The Oregon native, who got his start in the influential postpunk band Heatmiser, was a troubled soul—he was found dead in his L.A. apartment in 2003, the victim of knife wounds to the chest that may or may not have been self-inflicted. He battled addiction for years, even during a rare period of intense visibility—in 1997, when his song "Miss Misery," featured in the film Good Will Hunting, was nominated for an Oscar, he performed it on the awards show in a listless haze that kept his many curious new fans at arm's length.

For a long time, though, Smith was able to manage, and use, the despair he was feeling. His lyrics tell of having "static in my head, the reflected sound of everything," and yet his music is uncluttered, even crystalline, notable for its poised and cautiously buoyant melodies. He specialized in disquieting songs of self-recrimination, artful miniatures that examine feelings of dislocation through the serene prism of classic pop. The subject was often inner turmoil, yet no sirens scream inside his songs: At the postgrunge moment when most rock auteurs were expected to purge and vent, Smith held his disappointments close, and let them seep through in breathy, carefully considered whispers. You could be fully immersed in the bittersweetness before the words even had a chance to sink in.

The songs of XO have a touch of Kurt Cobain's disaffected-youth attitude-mongering, but it is conveyed in song structures that descend directly from the Beatles. Every last one is a gem—the two parlor-music waltzes, the ambling "Independence Day," the hurtling "Bled White," and the acoustic-guitar-and-voice fugue "Tomorrow Tomorrow." Too hip for the radio and too smart for indie rock, they remain a rare pinnacle of craft in an era when primitivism ruled. Rarely have accounts of being blown apart sounded so well put together.

Genre: Rock
Released: 1998, Dreamworks
Key Tracks: "Tomorrow Tomorrow," "Bled White"
Catalog Choice: From a Basement on the Hill
Next Stop: Iron and Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days
Book Pages: 716–717

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Comments:

#1 from Rachael, New Mexico - 11/11/2008 3:48

This is the perfect music for people who want to enjoy their melancholy. Smith’s intricate guitar work and deliciously depressing lyrics are a wonder.

#2 from greg croisant, seattle, wa - 12/02/2008 12:18

any of smith’s albums are worthy of this list. and this album is just a slice of his musical talent. his self titled album and “from a basement on the hill” are two of the greatest album ever as far as i’m concerned.

#3 from Bobby McObvious, Gresham, OR - 11/17/2009 5:59

While Elliot Smith is certainly viewed as a Portlander in his heart, he was a Texan by birth and youth, not an Oregonian.

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About 1,000 Recordings

Celebrate the joy, the revelation, the mystery, the fun, the sheer shivers-up-the-spine pleasure of great music.

Essential operas. Milestone rock albums. An education in the blues. The world of world. Classical from Bach to Bartók to Beethoven to Brahms. And dozens of unexpected gems, surprising discoveries, and long-lost masterpieces.

This is an online version of the list (published alphabetically in the book). The entries in the book break down genre bias and broaden every listener’s horizons—think Miles Davis to Claude Debussy to the melodic story-songs of The Decemberists. And the writing is passionate, informed, opinionated.

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