“The first time I ever heard an Elliott Smith song was in early high school, in Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums,” says musician Julien Baker, whose debut album Sprained Ankle pays subtle homage to Smith. “[His] Needle in the Hay is used over the climactic scene with Luke Wilson in the bathroom. That scene had a profound emotional impact on me, obviously because of the brutal visual element, but just as much because of the chilling, dark simplicity of that song.”

That “dark simplicity” is a hallmark of Smith’s work, particularly of his third studio album, Either/Or, which came out 20 years ago this week and to mark the anniversary, Smith’s record label Kill Rock Stars is releasing a remasteredversion of the album with added songs, Either/Or: Expanded Edition.



For the rerelease, tracks like Angeles and Rose Parade were remastered for the album by Larry Crane, a recording engineer who also serves as the archivist of Smith’s recordings, working with his family to catalogue the songs and demos that he left behind. “Elliott would not have glorified remnants of his own past the way we do now,” said Crane, whose view was echoed by fans who complained about the reissue. “But there are only a limited number of things left over and you want to pore through them and see what’s there and how ideas were formed.” Crane’s archive work has unearthed treasures that are included on the anniversary edition, including an alternative version of Bottle Up and Explode! and Smith’s take on I Figured You Out, a song he later gave to his friend Mary Lou Lord to perform.

When Either/Or originally came out at a time when grunge was still big, Sugar Ray and Smashmouth were hitting the charts alongside the Spice Girls and the Notorious BIG, but Smith created a subtly devastating album using nothing but pretty guitar chords, carefully crafted chamber-pop arrangements and intimate lyrics. The album has made a lasting impression on musicians and music fans across all genres – even Frank Ocean mentioned Smith’s influence in the liner notes to Blonde – and his fanbase continues to grow.

While Smith died in 2003, his work has lived on in part thanks to Crane’s mining of the archives, which revealed new tracks and unreleased demos, as well as a seemingly endless string of cover songs, tribute albums and concerts, a 2009 documentary, the 2015 film Heaven Adores You, and even the Silverlake bar that has preserved a chunk of the red-and-blue mural used as a backdrop for the cover of Smith’s 2000 album, Figure 8. (It’s fittingly called Bar Angeles).

Smith has also been a longtime favorite to soundtrack television shows and film, like Anderson’s Royal Tenenbaums and Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air. “Elliott Smith’s voice was an instrument created for scoring film,” says Reitman, who used Smith’s Angel in the Snow in his film. “He sings like a gently strummed guitar. His lyrics don’t interrupt the on-screen dialogue, but rather they serve as underscore. They add weight and emotion without interrupting the on-screen conversation.”

He had an uncanny ability to pepper introspective emotional observations with visual, evocative props. Sadie Dupuis

In addition to Reitman’s work, Smith’s music has been used to soundtrack scenes from TV shows as varied as teen curio The OC, time-traveling late-night cartoon Rick and Morty and Gossip Girl, as well as in films like American Beauty, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot and, perhaps most notably, Gus Van Sant’s Good Will Hunting. The use of Smith’s song Miss Misery in that film catapulted him into the national spotlight, figuratively and literally, when he performed the song on stage at the Oscars. He didn’t win an Oscar, but he won legions of new fans with his understated performance at a show known for being over the top.

Sadie Dupuis. Photograph: PR Company Handout

While he has clearly influenced music supervisors, it’s hard to underestimate the extent of Smith’s influence on musicians themselves. Smith’s music continues to affect people and shape musicians’ output. “I’m still surprised when I hear post-Elliott Smith things, like wow he really influenced a lot of people,” said Tony Lash, a high school friend and former bandmate of Smith’s. “What makes Elliott’s music so interesting is its attention to detail – in the lyrics, in the composition and in the production,” says Sadie Dupuis, from Speedy Ortiz and Sad13. “He had an uncanny ability to pepper introspective emotional observations with visual, evocative props.”

“I can think of a million recording tricks that are my go-tos that I copped directly from Elliott Smith albums – organs mixed low into the track, drums that come in 20 seconds before the song ends, double-tracking everything, I could go on and on,” said Dupuis. “His chord progressions and voicings sound simple enough on first listen, but try playing them yourself and it’s impossible; he had a totally brilliant command of guitar and an incomparable style.”

“I picked up the LP Either/Or and started listening to it and his other records,” said Baker. “I can definitely say that being exposed to that music was formative for me as a lyricist and musician. There’s something really effortless about Elliott Smith’s songwriting and how he conveys emotions in simplest terms. There’s so much dynamic in a few dissonant chords, so much poignant honesty in a handful of straightforward lines, and I have always been attracted to and influenced by the powerful bareness of those songs.”

“It feels like his legacy has grown, his reputation has grown,” says Sean Cannon, who runs WFPK’s radio show and podcast, The Guestlist . “I think a big part of that is because so many other musicians have sung his praises and said, ‘hey if you like what I do, you’re going to love this guy. Plus, it’s just that good.”



To pay homage to Either/Or, an album he considers “a perfect statement”, Cannon teamed up with Kill Rock Stars to produce a six-part podcast mini-series called Say Yes: An Elliott Smith Podcast. The show features interviews with the artists and creators who loved Smith and his songs, including Jack Black, Ben Gibbard, Regina Spektor, Gus Van Sant and the Flaming Lips. “I’m just a huge fan of Smith,” said Cannon. “I’m really drawn to specificity in songwriting. It’s similar to the way that Morrissey’s music is so universally loved is, ironically, because it’s so specific and so personal and I love that.”

Cannon – and many, many other people – feel like Smith’s music spoke to him directly, like a secret that was for his ears only. “Because of the way he talks about things that are going on, and because of who he is, you feel like you know him through his music,” said Cannon.

For his part, Lash, Smith’s friend and former Heatmiser bandmate, doesn’t think it’s possible to really know Smith through his music. “I think people ascribe more autobiographical content than is really there. There was a lot more to him and his personality than what he put into his songs,” said Lash, who thinks the biggest misconception about Smith is that he went through life gloomy and heartbroken. “His awesome sense of humor doesn’t come through in his music and it was a very important part of his personality,” he said. “Just taking his music would give people a pretty skewed, narrow sense of who he was.”

Whether or not you can ever know an artist through his music isn’t nearly as important as if the songs speak to you – if they can help you through a broken heart, or inspire you to call the person you like, or even to finish your workout at the gym. Music transcends the artist’s biography or even intent, which is part of the reason people don’t mind mondegreens, because mishearing lyrics almost doesn’t matter if you love a song. To crib from Smith himself, new fans may never know him now, but they’re going to love him anyhow.

Elliott Smith’s remastered Either/Or is out on Kill Rock Stars on 10 March