Elliott Smith "Either/Or" [1997]

I think it was downright cruel that nobody bothered telling Elliott Smith that Simon & Garfunkel hadn't been cool for decades, if they ever were cool at all. His "breakthrough" 1997 effort -- if "breakthrough" is something you can call a group of songs that don't "drive" so much as "waft" -- reeks of acoustic 60s sentiment: the Byrds in slow-motion, or the vague apparition of Thunderclap Newman. Except in the 60s people tended to have a positive outlook, even with the Vietnam War devouring everyone's classmates and sending the chickenshits off to Canada; in the 90s there was nothing but peace and prosperity, but all singer/songwriters like Smith could manage to write were acoustic funeral dirges about how lame they are. Not that he wasn't accurate about it -- this was one homely dude (even he couldn't have been shocked by his seemingly constant ill-treatment from chicks); what it proves is that glum kids from the 90s could still get off with a little Schadenfreude. Either that or they just enjoyed bumming themselves out, which was pretty easy to do with this guy who could scarcely be bothered to bring his singing voice louder than a warbly whisper. I guess it makes more sense than permanently covering yourself in tattoos like they do nowadays, though; you can always get happy again after you stop listening to weakling mopes like Elliott Smith.