Nowhere is this clearer than on Either/Or, a record that starts with Smith singing “He’s planned to meet you underneath the horse/ In the cathedral with the glass stained black.” Things don’t get much bleaker than that, but there’s a hope in Elliott Smith’s darkness and a cynical sense of humor that propels Either/Or from self-doubt towards cautious optimism.

There’s a constant push and pull in all of Smith’s work, contrasts between simple and intricate, dissonant and melodic. The album’s lyrics are full of disappointment and loneliness, sung over melodies straight out of Tin Pan Alley it’s a Los Angeles record, one that finds the city both foreboding and transparent. This was an especially funny notion considering Either/Or, the record that informed Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting soundtrack, featured Smith and his narrators at their most downtrodden and unlucky. He wasn’t about to top the Billboard charts, but fans of his first three records surely didn’t imagine hearing his songs at a multiplex. It marked the beginning of a new chapter for Smith, who had been a relatively successful indie rock musician until he was suddenly the Oscar-nominated center of attention.Įither/Or found Elliott Smith on the edge of this major success. Not only is it an inherently bizarre moment in pop culture, it’s a nervous but typically brilliant performance, with a surprisingly understated Academy orchestra in the background. Much has been made of Elliott Smith’s performance at the 1997 Oscar ceremony, and rightly so.

Elliott smith either or album