I thought it was a gatefold with inner sleeves including lyrics, but it came with white sleeves and no gatefold. Although Elliott's music was always largely on the (wonderfully) depressing scale, 'Either/Or', though only occasionally, actually has it's more upbeat pop moments, but every track, upbeat or otherwise, is a little work of art.

As well as the original album in remastered form, this edition adds a disc of 1997 live recordings and as-yet-unreleased studio recordings.It summed up Smith perfectly, as his biographer states "the music kept rising but the person kept falling". This led to the Oscar nomination for best song with "Miss Misery" which is not included on this album but saw Smith undertake one of the most real if culturally out of place performances in the ceremonies history. Simple lyricism grounded in realism, contrasted by complex instrumentation and a playful approach to form and structure.

If you enjoy great, intelligent songwriting, you can't go wrong with any of Elliott Smith's releases, but this one captures him at the beginning of his established peak and relative popularity.The highly acclaimed Either/Or, the third album from Elliott Smith and his last written and recorded in Portland, OR, broke through to a larger international audience.

The second disc features five live multi-track recordings from the Yo Yo A Go Go Festival in Olympia, WA in 1997, as well as three previously unreleased studio recordings and one b-side gem. To commemorate the 20th Anniversary of Elliott Smith’s best-selling and greatly beloved album, Either/Or, Kill Rock Stars proudly presents Either/Or: Expanded Edition. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. The final chapter of his first period as a solo artist, Either/Or remains a cornerstone of folk/pop melancholia with aftershocks felt to this day. In questa edizione un secondo cd con uno sciamanico live, più due tracce alternative alle originali, con un libricino molto ben fatto, con testi e foto, piacevole da sfogliare.Others worth a mention in dispatches include the bittersweet "Rose Parade" with the immortal opening lines "You asked me to come down and watch the parade/To march down the street like the Duracell bunny/With a wink and a wave from the cavalcade/Throwing out candy that looks like money".

When I first heard his music, I had to get past his soft vocal style, which could be mistaken for "weak" or "wimpy", but in the end, it's perfect for letting the songs really shine on their own. Following on from Roman Candle, Smith's startling debut, Elliott Smith is another work of lone ambition. Then contact your credit card company, it may take some time before your refund is officially posted. The 20th anniversary edition of Elliott Smith's beloved third album Either / Or, newly remastered for this release.It's no secret that Smith dealt with alcoholism and addiction, but through his music you can see that he was able to experience love as well. His songs struck a nerve well beyond the Northwest music scene - Madonna, of all people, covered the morosely pretty drunk's lullaby 'Between the Bars. The constant push and pull between the dissonant and melodic, dealing with today's disappointment and loneliness knowing that things could change tomorrow. If I was pushed to single out just four of them personal highlights on this album, then I guess I would have to opt for Sixties-tingled 'Alameda' with it's terrific rhythm, 'Angeles', a particularly catchy tune which I believe to be about the hypocrisy surrounding the music business, the stirring 'Between the Bars', made famous in the same year of this record when it was used in the closing credits of the hit film 'Good Will Hunting', and the heart-warming, frankly adorable 'Say Yes', which fades things out beautifully. Following the album's release, Smith would be struck to the forefront of popular culture after performing the song "Miss Misery", which appeared in the film Good Will Hunting, at the 1998 Academy Awards.