From The Vaults Friday: Elliott Smith, Either/Or (1997)

The Year: 1997
The Album: Elliott Smith, Either/Or
Who It Influenced: Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Grizzly Bear, José González, Jeff Hanson

12 years after Either/Or was released —and six years after Elliott Smith died young and left a scarred, abused, beaten-down corpse— and the magnum opus for Portland's most famous songwriting son has a definite ghostly tinge. To discover it now, either anew or all over again, is to hear an album whispered as if from beyond the grave.

Yet, as someone old enough to have bought Either/Or upon its 1997 release, I remember it when the album was not a veritable death-poem, but a record fresh and alive, filled with tender, melodic, romantic songs that made their author's misery seem inspiring. Death Cab for Cutie beefcake Ben Gibbard told me, in 2001: “I remember the summer of '97 as the summer of Either/Or, because that's all that anyone I knew was listening to.”

It's hard, a dozen years, one Oscars telecast, one (possible) suicide, and two posthumous albums later, to divorce the art from the artist. But, doing so reveals a near-perfect pop-record merely made by someone with problems.

Smith's hushed lullabies may be riddled with heartache and depression, abuse and self-loathing, addiction and optimism, but they're also pure, simple, defiant, and weirdly beautiful. Smith's knack for hooks and gift for melody would come to bold fruition on later albums, but here he's so low-key it somehow gets overlooked. More than some cry-for-help, Either/Or is an album of timeless simplicity, one bound to strike a chord with lovelorned loners for years to come.

• Full review: Elliott Smith, Either/Or
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Photo © Autumn DeWilde