Elliot Smith's XO

By Thomas Kane

Though many remember Elliott Smith's Oscar performance only as a prelude to Celine Dion, it also marked the end of a lo-fi hero.

While a bigger studio sound won't necessarily destroy an album, the overproduction on XO dilutes Smith's greatest asset: a passionate balance between lyrics and instrumentation. In trying to be a multi-dimensional arranger, he sacrifices his personal relationship with his listeners.

On his previous Kill Rock Stars releases (Elliott Smith and Either/Or) and on the Good Will Hunting soundtrack, Smith carved a niche as indie rock's greatest troubadour, a posterboy for heartache. The listener was drawn in by his poetic understanding of love and loneliness, accentuated by his instrumental simplicity. He crafted perfect comfort and counsel in guitar walk-downs that whispered a secret. Unfortunately, on XO, it seems as if the secret got out.

The style change on XO occurs almost exclusively in instrumental arrangements. What was once unassuming guitar music is now a jumble of Smith's playtoys. Ill-placed piano walk-downs, mundane guitar lines and overbearing percussion do nothing to help "Waltz #2," while the uninspired and painfully melodramatic piano solo in the love song "Pitselah" is a far cry from the finely executed guitar turnarounds of Either/Or. Add to this the vibes on "Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands" and the full horn section on "A Question Mark," and the listener is lost in a sea of overproduction with nothing left to infer.

Even where the album succeeds, it fails. Smith's voice sounds more mature than ever, but it's lost in a church choir's worth of backup vocals. Depressingly, Smith seems to be suffering from the common inverse relationship between exposure and quality of music, and as a result, XO serves as a reminder that four tracks are often better than eight. (DreamWorks Records)

Back to A&E...