Track Listing

1. Speed Trials
2. Alameda
3. Ballad Of Big Nothing
4. Between The Bars
5. Pictures Of Me
6. No Name #5
7. Rose Parade
8. Punch And Judy
9. Angeles
10. Cupid's Trick
11. 2.45am
12. Say Yes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7481 in Music
• Released on: 2004-12-06
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
Blessed with the voice of a wispy angel, Elliot Smith creates sad little pop songs, which, like the work of Nick Drake (to whom he's been compared) threaten to disappear into the night air. Several of the tracks here were featured in Gus Van Zant's movie Good Will Hunting, and they're among the album's best (though "Miss Misery", nominated for an Academy Award is only available on the soundtrack album). "Angeles" and "Say Yes" are bittersweet laments that feature Smith's idiosyncratic guitar picking, which is well served by the album's decidedly low-fi production. --Rob O'Connor

CD Description
This singer/songwriter can say more with a whisper than most folks can with a scream. The gently insinuating despair ofSmith's work communicates volumes about the heartbreak and alienation that is the bane of 20th century boys with too much time on their hands. Smith's day job fronting the aggressive post-punk band Heatmiser provides him with the necessaryyang to produce the quiet, evocative yin of his solo work.
On EITHER/OR, Smith observes a production ethic that retains a lo-fi looseness without sacrificing any sonic clarity.His songs of loss and loneliness have the broken-poet aura of Smog or Mark Eitzel, but he offsets the gloom with a hatful of damnably catchy melodies and progressions, turning suffering into pop and making it signify.

Customer Reviews

In my top 5 albums of all time
This is a great album. Excellent song writing, and wonderfully lo-fi sounding. The production makes it sound like Elliot is next door, playing live and it's all coming through the wall a little bit muffled. Very human sounding and very melodic.

Mind you, if you dont have his other first two albums I would buy the box set instead, that contains this and them for similar money. (they're good as well)

Possibly Elliott's best album
This is the first album I heard by Elliott Smith, and it left me so hungry to hear more of his work that I just had to buy all his albums.

Either/Or is perhaps his best work, it is an absolute dream for fans of lo-fi, stripped down, intimate, acoustic guitar mastery. The album lacks the polish of his later works XO and Figure 8 but in my opinion it has ten times the magic.

After all, what is a bit of tape hiss between friends? Yes, this album has that but to be honest, if Elliott re-recorded it in an all singing, all dancing 24-track studio, he couldn't better what he has made here.

It has a gentle, folky, campfire intimacy that makes you feel as though you know Elliott, you are chilling with him as he captivates you with his incredible guitar picking and his extraordinary voice.

Comparisons with Nick Drake are inevitable but perhaps a little misleading. The only real similarity is that, like Nick, Elliott is a poet who knows just how beautiful the simplicity of vocals and acoustic guitar can be. But I think Elliott sounds more like a Beatle. If he had been in the group his voice would have perfectly complemented John and Paul.

This is an album where every track has something beautiful about it � Between the Bars is a gorgeous ballad, while Speed Trials contains an infectious, haunting melody you will never get out of your head. Rose Parade is another amazing acoustic song with some humorous, wry lyrics � only Elliott could get away with mentioning the Duracell Bunny without looking silly.

Behind the bitterness and hurt of many of the lyrics on the album lurks an angry punk, not a wistful folkie, which in my opinion makes it all the more special. It amazes me that he does not have the public recognition that Radiohead enjoy � he clearly deserves it. A modern day genius. Sometimes five stars just don't seem enough.

life changing album from underrated songwriter
i remember buying this album xmas 98 just after XO came out domino re-released his first three albums so I didn't know where to start but I had heard 'between the bars' on the UNCUT albums of year compilation, so I went for 'either/or'. The influence is still resonating to this day nobody I feel was writing pure acoustic pop up to that point and lo-fi production gained elliott his rabid cult following. On first listen 'Say Yes' is such brillant song using 60's style songwriting (simon & garfunkel/kinks/beatles) but with a contempory edge and is still in my opinon his finest song, closely followed by '2:45' the intimacy on this track is just so absorbing the conviction in elliott's voice is what stands him out from alot other more mainstream singer-songwriters you just know he means every single word. Probably the best place to start if your a virgin elliott smith listener.