Album of the Day — September 8
Elliot Smith — XO
Elliot Smith — XO
08.September.2020
Elliot Smith
XO
1998
Following his Oscar-nominated “Miss Misery” from the movie Good Will Hunting, Elliot Smith released his fourth album XO in 1998.
This would be his first album with a major label, DreamWorks.
Elliot Smith was a fixture on the Portland music scene. In fact, he was arguably one of its driving forces.
Smith formed the band Heatmiser while at college in Amherst, MA, and after graduating, he and co-founder Neil Gust moved west to Oregon.
Heatmiser would release two albums and one EP on Frontier Records. Eventually, Virgin Records took note and signed them …and then the band imploded as Elliot Smith decided to work alone.
XO was produced by Elliot Smith, Rob Schnapf, and Tom Rothrock and contained two singles — “Waltz #2 (XO)” and “Baby Britain.”
The acoustic and dream-like sound of the album sounds like what I imagine Portland looks like. Not necessarily happy, but not necessarily gloomy.
The album’s first single, “Waltz #2 (XO)” is the story of what happens when Mother’s re-marry. In fact, this song is a softer companion piece to Pearl Jam’s “Better Man.”
Contextually, the songs are similar, but I suppose having an understanding that both Eddie Vedder and Elliot Smith were raised by men who were not their biological fathers helps frame the lyrics a little better.
While both songs are written and sung from the male perspective, the more rock sounding “Better Man” is more heartbreaking than angry:
“She lies and says she’s in love with him, can’t find a better man
She dreams in color, she dreams in red, can’t find a better man”
And “Waltz #2 (XO)” is more reflective as the son is looking back on bad memories as he is reading a letter from his mother (ergo, the XO): “I’m so glad that my memory’s remote.”
His memories of his mother are less than favorable:
“She shows no emotion at all, Stares into space like a dead china doll.”
And clearly, there is no love lost between the mother’s new husband:
“Tell Mr. Man with impossible plans to just leave me alone”
Now, if the gut-wrenching refrain is from son to mother or mother to son, or to a lover who has left is anyone’s guess …but no less powerful:
“I’m never gonna know you now, but I’m gonna love you anyhow.”
Waltz #2 (XO)
First the mic then a half cigarette
Singing Cathy's Clown
That's the man that she's married to now
That's the girl that he takes around town
She appears composed, so she is, I suppose
Who can really tell?
She shows no emotion at all
Stares into space like a dead china doll
I'm never gonna know you now, but I'm gonna love you anyhow
Now she's done and they're calling someone
Such a familiar name
I'm so glad that my memory's remote
'Cause I'm doing just fine hour to hour, note to note
Here it is, the revenge to the tune,
"You're no good,
You're no good you're no good you're no good"
Can't you tell that it's well understood?
I'm never gonna know you now, but I'm gonna love you anyhow
I'm here today and expected to stay on and on and on
I'm tired
I'm tired
Looking out on the substitute scene
Still going strong
XO, mom
It's Ok, it's alright, nothing's wrong
Tell Mr. Man with impossible plans to just leave me alone
In the place where I make no mistakes
In the place where I have what it takes
I'm never gonna know you now, but I'm gonna love you anyhow
I'm never gonna know you now, but I'm gonna love you anyhow
I'm never gonna know you now, but I'm gonna love you anyhow
Much has been made about how much verisimilitude is in Smith’s lyrics.
His battle with mental health issues and addiction was one of the artists’ best-kept secrets from his fans for the majority of his career. However, it was not a secret from those close to him.
And “Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands” is a seething indictment on those who made an attempt to intervene. For anyone who has ever seen an episode of the television show Intervention, or been part of one, or read about one, you can’t help but place the lyrics in that frame:
From wherever they came to fix you in
But always fear the city’s finest follow right behind
You got a pretty vision in your head
A pencil full of poison lead
And like many attempts at intervention, there is anger. A lot of anger:
You say you mean well, you don’t know what you mean
Fucking ought to stay the hell away from things you know nothing about
CRITICS:
Mark Richardson of Pitchfork wrote: “Smith’s songwriting continues to improve, as each of [the album’s] fourteen tracks displays his inarguable mastery of the pop song structure more clearly than ever.”
Robert Christgau kept it simple: “high tune, low affect” — whatever that means.
Mike Diver of the BBC said: “”the budget might have gone up, but Smith’s masterful way with an understated melody and melancholic lyric remained firmly intact.”
The music on XO can fit in either pop or folk, but like so much of Elliot Smith’s work, it captures a sound and a mood of that moment in time. In 1998, the world was awash with grunge music and its anger, and as unhappy as these songs may be, they do provide an antidote.
Well, maybe not an antidote but certainly present a softer side of the anger.
AOTD - Albums of the Day
For the week of September 7, 2020keithrhiggons.substack.com