![]() ![]() The fact that Smith was able to build this much emotional complexity into a song that sounds at home in a stadium or at a Starbucks speaks to his irreplaceable gift as a songwriter.Įlsewhere, Smith amplifies his well-honed songwriting chops with more fleshed-out arrangements. “Between the Bars” is about the ways in which protecting somebody you love turns into the need to control that person. It’s not a love song, exactly, and it’s not a song about addiction, exactly. Nowhere is this clearer than “Between the Bars,” the closest thing to a modern-day standard Smith ever wrote and covered by everyone from Metric to Madonna. And yet, Smith-as with many truly great songwriters-used this specificity as a way to explore emotional themes that resonate both deeply and broadly. The sounds and words of Either/Or often conjure very specific images, textures, and situations. ![]() Thankfully, this 20th anniversary remaster doesn't smooth out too many of those rough edges-if anything, it brings the unique sound of the record into even clearer focus. ![]() It’s too ambitious to read as “lo-fi” and too gritty to read as straightforward pop classicism. A year prior, his former band Heatmiser had been put through that very ringer, an experience captured in Either/Or standouts “Pictures of Me” and “Angeles.” Either/Or sounds like the work of somebody who has zero interest in either conforming to or directly transgressing the “commercial” sounds of the day. By the time Either/Or was released in 1997, Smith was no stranger to the cynical machinations of the post-grunge major label gold rush. ![]()
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