It might even be worse in the remaster as it seems every song has been made louder, a trend that's been pervasive in music releases in the last 15 years and something that I would've hoped the guys in charge of an Elliott Smith release wouldn't have fallen prey to. Worse is that existing issues, like the hiss from the drum track during Speed Trials, an issue that has existed since the album's original release and came as a result of Elliott's recording choices, still exist. There is noticeable distortion on the acoustic guitar tracks, especially the lower notes of Between the Bars. The full band songs seem to have received the best results from the remaster but as soon as there's an acoustic guitar standing on it's own, particularly with the intro to Ballad of Big Nothing and the entirety of Between the Bars, the sound suffers and the negatives of the remaster really come to light. The nitpicks will have a point though and I'll get back to them.įor the most part the remaster is either barely noticeable, a marginal improvement in the case of Cupid's Trick, or objectively worse.
Even with the issues this remaster has it is in no way unlistenable. Before getting into this I would like to iterate that Either/Or is a fantastic album and some of these will be nitpicks.
This version has been remastered by Larry Crane, the archivist of the estate of Elliott, and features the Either/Or album remastered in it's entirety, a handful of rarities, a -side, a few live songs from Elliott's 1997 Yo Yo a Go Go performance, an Elliott Smith recording of a Mary Lou Lord song, and an entirely new version of Bottle Up and Explode that has never been leaked or released prior to this. If you haven't been in the loop Either/Or has received a re-release for it's 20th anniversary. If this marks the first time you will hear songs like “Pictures Of Me”, “Rose Parade”, “Angeles” or “Between The Bars”… boy, you’d better brace yourself.With the release of the Either/Or remaster and it's arrival on my front porch yesterday evening I finally got around to listening to it and.
If you are a longtime fan, you will find plenty of reasons here to fall in love all over again with “Either/Or”. Luckily, Crane kept the rough edges intact while at the same time making these gems shine even more. Heavily indebted to classic pop but still peppered with plenty of grit, these songs are easily some of the best Smith has ever written. All of the songs from the original have been carefully remastered from the original tapes under the supervision of Larry Crane, while 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 track. To celebrate the 20 th anniversary of Elliott Smith’s beloved album “Either/Or”, Kill Rock Stars has released an expanded version of the 1997 classic.
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