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XO

By Lemay, Matthew
XO

Details

Authors: Lemay, Matthew
Copyright: 2009
Format: Paperback
GTIN13: 9780826429001
ISBN10: 0826429009
Page Count: 142
Dimensions: 4.7x0.4x6.4
Publisher: Continuum

Strand Notes

The name "Elliott Smith" conjures images of a sad, powerless, and drug-addled coffeehouse troubadour. But his 1998 major-label debut XO is a musically intricate and lyrically bold rejection of this archetype. How and why did Smith cometo be considered the consummate "sad sack", even as his music explicitly countered this construct? Tracing numerous early demo and live recordings of the songs that became XO, Matt LeMay deconstructs the remarkable creative process behind a fully realized masterpiece and examines the tensions between Elliot Smith's work and his popular image. Sources. 124p.

Description

Many albums could be cited to support the claim that great suffering yields great art. Elliott Smith's XO should not be one of them. Smith's 1998 major label debut defies the "tortured singer-songwriter" stereotype, and takes up this defiance as a central theme. At a time when Smith was being groomed for a particular (and particularly condescending) brand of stardom, he produced a record that eviscerated one of the central assumptions of singersongwriterdom: that pain is beautiful. XO insists that romanticizing personal tragedy can only leave you "deaf and dumb and done." And it backs up this claim with some of the most artful and intelligent music of its day. Matthew LeMay writes an original take on a widely beloved album, steering clear of the sensationalist suicide angles that have dogged most analysis of Elliott Smith's extraordinary work.
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