Either/Or ‘, the third Elliott Smith’s album named after Kierkergaard’s book of the same name, was released on Kill Rock Stars in 1997. If it only consists of 12 songs, Elliott did record many other songs during this period, and some of them were later used for the posthumous ‘New Moon’.
‘Speed trials’: The relatively high-pitched vocals over the heavy drumming releases a febrile energy and anxiety, as if you were running as fast as you can while staying at the same place. If a speed trial is a test to see how fast something can go, the song is just plain ironic.
‘Alameda’: a powerful ballad with a nostalgic melody and some beautiful vocal harmonies, which seems like a self-accusation, a self-confession of a lack of courage, an admittance of your own shortcoming, through heartbreaking and revealing lyrics: ‘Nobody broke your heart/You broke your own because you can’t finish what you start…Nobody broke your heart/If you’re alone it must be you that wants to be apart’.
‘Ballad of big nothing’: With a heavy use of drums, and some loud guitar riffs, the song is a nihilistic and haunting ballad, an existential reminiscence of a character from a Dostoyevsky’s novel with the killing lyrics ‘You can do what you want to whenever you want to/You can do what you want to there’s no one to stop you/Now you can do what you want to whenever you want to/Do what you want to whenever you want to/Do what you want to whenever you want to though it doesn’t mean a thing/Big nothing’. Even though you have free will, it does not mean anything since life is an absurd parade about nothing.
‘Between the bars’: One of Elliott’s most famous song, as fluid and soft as a lullaby that may be sang to a bottle. The word ‘bars’ has an ambiguous meaning, and soon you don’t know if he is talking about the public establishments, or the jail of his addiction. The romantic imagery going on with lines like ‘Drink up, baby, look at the stars, I’ll kiss you again between the bars’ turns alcohol into the object of this dangerous affection-addiction.
‘Pictures of me’ starts slowly, and builds up into a louder and louder sound. It is an angry song, a shout out loud against fame and make believe. But fame is also a curious malady, and ‘Everybody’s dying just to get the disease.’
‘No name #5’ is a song with a heavy side, with a slow and static melody and sad lyrics translating isolation, inertia, alienation, fear and anxiety . It’s all about this paradoxical feeling to be at the same time relieved and desperately lonely when a broken relationship is ending: ‘Got a broken heart and your name on my cast/And everybody’s gone at last’
‘Rose parade’ makes you almost uncomfortable, the tune is monotonous and the singing tone reinforces the passivity of the narration. It’s also terribly self-deprecating, ‘And when they clean the street I’ll be the only shit that’s left behind’. Life is just a parade that he refuses to join.
‘Punch and Judy’ is soft spoken but despite his somewhat upbeat melody and almost whispering tone, the story behind it is all about trouble relationship, sadness and uneasiness associated with hurtful behaviors that have to be repeated.
‘Angeles’ is also one of Elliott’s most known songs, and was very often requested live because of the true beauty of its melody. With a somewhat Faustian theme (‘Sign up with evil’), it tells you how the beauty of the devil is difficult to resist, whereas the attraction of the demon, the seduction of the danger has never been translated so well by the delicate guitar picking: ‘I could make you satisfied in everything you do/All your “secret wishes” could right now be coming true/And be forever with my poison arms around you/No one’s going to fool around with us’
‘Cupid’s trick’s lyrics do not figure on the booklet and it’s not exactly clear why, but you cannot deny the dangerous and intense feeling that emerges from the way song resonates. Elliott said that he omitted the lyrics because that song was not about the words but about the way it sounded: the loudness of the words, which reflect the aggressivity of the melody, was more important than the meaning.
‘2:45 am’ makes you wandering in the streets early morning, after what it seems to be a violent fight: The music, whose volume builds up progressively because of the drums, translates a terrible anger, a painful disorientation and a heartbreaking loneliness but also a lot of courage.
‘Say Yes’ was always a request from the audience, because it seems to be a happy song at first. Elliott said he wrote this song in five minutes, music and words, after breaking up with his girlfriend, so it’s hard to understand why he would have been so insanely optimistic. You cannot deny the appeal of the cuteness of the melody and the sweet lyrics, ‘I’m in love with the world through the eyes of a girl, who’s still around the morning after.’ But the song goes up and down like a trouble relationship and each line becomes the positive or the negative of the previous one:
A lot of songs written during the ‘Either/Or’ period, were remixed by Larry Crane before being included in the ‘New Moon’ collection released in 2007. This is the case for the following songs.
‘New Monkey’: Elliott named his studio in the LA valley ‘New Monkey’ and legend says it was his new way to invest his money (instead of buying drugs). Since drug addiction can be referred to as ‘monkey on your back’, it could make sense. The song could also referred to his difficult and frustrating relationship with his label, when he is almost screaming: ’No actor action man going to move in to take my place/I’ll be pumping out the product/Just a total waste’.
‘Looking over my shoulder’: A song with an angry tone, and some lyrics which could give an idea of his state of mind about his relationship with people giving him advice (record company? friends?) at that time: ‘You come over with all of your friends/And all their opinions I don’t want to know/And I’m looking over my shoulder/Booking away with nowhere to go’.
‘Going nowhere’: A song, which may have been originally called “No Name #5”, although there is now another song called ‘No Name #5’. Going seems to be a common theme at this time, but this time there is no escape, he is going nowhere: a particularly sad and desperate situation with no hope and no return. ‘Going nowhere/It’s dead and gone, matter of fact/Maybe for the best’
‘Go By’: A quiet tune with some vocal harmonies in the chorus that remind what Elliott did with The Beatles’ ‘Because’. For a long time, this song was only available as an instrumental and live versions. A line like ‘Dressed all in white/Some torment saint’ is an Elliott’s lyrical signature, an imagery found again in ‘The white lady loves you more’ for example.
‘Placeholder’: A sad and quiet melody, and the nostalgia of a relationship almost over ‘Just like my favorite song/Some pretty words that didn’t last that long’. He was just like a placeholder in this relationship, somebody who was holding something in place.
‘New disaster’: A song with beautiful lyrics like ‘The ghost of your smile is always looking/For new bodies to haunt’, floating on a delicate and sad melody. Most of the songs on ‘New Moon’ are on the depressive side, but with ‘New disaster’ he seems particularly sad and lost, lamenting about a disastrous relationship.
‘Seen how things are hard’: With an unusual melody and rhythm, the song once again describes what it seems to be in a trouble relationship with someone addicted to something.
‘Fear City’: A song with a more rock-like music and a Heatmiser ambiance contrary to most of the other songs on ‘New Moon’. The line ‘I’m going to see my city dead’ is repeated several times, city/town being a metaphor Elliott often uses to describe some intimate drama as with ‘Alphabet city’, or with the lines ‘Was a parliament of owls/Flying over a city of canals’ in ‘Strung out again’, ‘In the city I built up and blew to hell’ in ‘A Passing Feeling’, ‘splitzville/quitsville’ in Splitzville.
‘Either/or:’ A beautiful melody with organ keyboard, and it’s a shame it was only a left over from the album of the same name.The Kierkergaard’s existentialist question.
‘Pretty Mary K’ (other version or ‘Everything’s Okay’): It should not be confused with the other ‘Pretty Mary K’ song on ‘Figure 8’. Obviously he is talking about the same person, his mother. It is a confusing song since live versions exist with the line ‘Pretty Mary K’ replaced by ‘Everything’s Okay”. Although the lyrics keep been changed, the line ‘With some little boy in blue’ is always present referring to his relationship with his mother. The lines ‘And I’ll be waiting still impatient/With my dead imagination/While you’re with some other man’ summarizes the mood of the sad and quiet tune.
‘Almost Over’: The lyrics, which evoke frustration and anger, are running after a nervous and almost creepy guitar.
These other songs do not figure on ‘New Moon’ but were also recorded or composed during this same ‘Either/Or’ period
‘Abused’: A song that may have appeared on ‘From a Basement on the Hill’ if Elliott had lived, but we’ll never know. Some instrumental versions have been available before the full one with lyrics. A utterly personal song and a clear meaning, probably Elliott’s life longtime battle floating on a quiet melody that explodes when the first ‘Abused’ is sung. The song is also atmospheric with references to the church, the men in black, and terrible childhood memories:
‘Although you feel the effects you feel/Bruised now, body and mind you feel/Used now, almost all of the time/Been abused/Abused/Abused’
‘You make it seem like nothing’: No studio recording has been found of this song, which has been played live only twice. I have never heard it.
‘Have you seen her?’ or ‘I’m All Over It Now’: I only know a bad live recording of the song, Elliott didn’t seem to have play it very often, and no studio recording is known.
‘I figured you out’: Although Elliott played it live quite often, he did not like the song because he said ‘it sounded too much like the fucking Eagles’. He recorded it with Mary Lou Lord, around 1997 where he only played guitar while Mary Lou Lord was singing vocals. The tune is hardly upbeat and the lyrics heartbreaking ’To someone that wants you/That you’ll never know’
‘No Name #6’ was officially released on the ‘Division Day’ single, and is the last of the ‘No Name’ tracks. The sickle shape of the moon, a familiar imagery in Elliott’s songs is present again, and it is never good news: ‘The moon is in a sickle shape/You know you’re only really happy just for now’ reminds ‘The moon is a sickle cell/ It’ll kill you in time’ in ‘Coming up roses’. The ‘stars all around’ and the tempo of the song evoke some nightly escape, refusing to realize that happiness does not last long because ‘This time we can’t lose’
‘Now You wanna show me how’: Larry Crane found a version that did not contain vocals when compiling tracks for ‘New Moon’, thus it was not included. I have never heard this song.
‘The enemy is you’: this song was included on the UK ‘Baby Britain’ single, as well as on the ‘B-Sides and rarities’. With a Heatmiser tempo and a powerful drumming, it is again an angry song, and lyrics for once are pretty direct:
“The enemy is you/You beat up on yourself/Because there ain’t no one else/Who feels quite as good/To put straight through hell’ Sabotage has never been so present in Elliott’s world.