Either/Or, which was initially released on the indie label Kill Rock Stars, was comparatively big-budget, being in part studio-recorded, and with a producer other than himself. Heatmiser, he felt, had been burned by the corporate rock business, and clearly Smith retained his suspicions, his first two solo albums being home-recorded, low profile affairs.
Smith’s previous band Heatmiser had flirted with this mode but his solo material was more melodically searching and candid, the gaze of his music turned inwards, his worst criticisms reserved for himself. The musicians of five years previously – like say, Nirvana – had vocalised their issues of low self-esteem in a cathartic grunge rock. Self-evidently melancholic, folky, it isolated a desolate emotional state and gave it a female name. Miss Misery (contemporary with, if not featured on, the current release) was a fine example of Smith's art. His song Miss Misery had been featured in the film Good Will Hunting, and now here he was, nominated for Best Original Song: taking a bow with Celine Dion, with unwashed hair, performing in a white suit. For many, their introduction to Smith and his predicament came at the 1998 Academy Awards. The least comfortable of rock stars, Elliott Smith never thrived in the spotlight, but his gift for tender and melodic alternative rock repeatedly pushed him there.
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