Smith details imploding relationships with a cool casualness: “Nobody broke your heart/You broke your own ‘cause you can’t finish what you start,” he observes in “Alameda.” His previous band, Heatmiser, had stuck a toe in the major label waters, an experience he details with disdain in “Pictures of Me” and “Angeles,” a place where the odds are definitely not in your favor (“And what’s a game of chance to you/to him is one of real skill”). What you find is that despite the gentle, even soothing vocals, is that Smith’s more likely to be spinning out a dark tale than not. And there’s a spareness to the sound (Smith plays all the instruments) that makes you really pay attention to the words. In the album’s liner notes, Kill Rock Stars’ founder Slim Moon notes the difficulty some critics had in taking Smith’s music seriously what was “folk music” doing on KRS, home to more raucous groups like Bikini Kill? Smith’s music wasn’t “folk,” of course, just mostly acoustic. Others were recorded in various apartments Joanna Bolme, who lived in one of those apartments, jokes that that’s the reason “Speed Trials” is so quiet: “It was an apartment, not a house, and we had a neighbor below.” For the first time, Smith was able to stretch out during the recording process, recording on 4-track, 8-track, and 16-track, learning to use the studio like an instrument. Some tracks were recorded in a studio, housed in what used to be a dairy barn. The album was truly DIY in the best Kill Rock Stars tradition. For its 20th anniversary, it’s been revamped into a two-disc set, with the original album remastered, and a second disc of rarities.
Either/Or was Elliott Smith’s third album, and his last indie LP.
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