I have a friend who is always in a constant state of significance. Whatever happens to them is always important and life changing. When you're so alert to significance then every experience you have is magnified and your body becomes saturated by adrenaline, anxiety and meaning. This is probably caused by some past trauma but when you're in this state everything that subsequently happens to you becomes traumatic. I spend a good proportion of every week telling them to calm down and reminding them not everything is about something. She met Tito Jackson weeks before his death and now I have to look at pictures of the fried chicken he didn't eat and listen to why that means she's wasted her life.
Obviously I don't know Elliot Smith but it does appear he maybe suffered from the same condition. Some people see the iceberg above the water, some see the terrifying cold mass below. You should really avoid the iceberg but when everything means something you instead turn up the engines and crash your ship as hard as you can and then spend the rest of your life chipping bits of ice off for shots and enjoying the cold numb. Like his school district let's be thankful that Elliot Smith picked up a guitar instead of an assault rifle.
XO has a collection of songs that are about something significant. They come heavily wrapped in some sweet Beatlesque melodies that sound great and hint at some deeper understanding of music than I can explain. The descending guitar line and pedal point of Sweet Adeline is the perfect example and it even has a nice Pixiesque quiet loud dynamic. It's probably my album highlight but i did also enjoy the horns in A Question Mark and the nasal harmony of I Didn't Understand.
It is normal for me to force some significance in what is seemingly insignificant and then spend days annoying everyone (hello Gary Clarke Jr). However XO makes me feel like a poseur. It's already significant in ways that I am much too insignificant and insincere to express. These short paragraphs have already taken me 2 hours to write as I write and scribble out ideas and thoughts inbetween wikipedia and subreddit expeditions. I find I have nothing to say that is worth saying. I normally start writing and a conclusion appears. Not today. Maybe even never again. Icebergs ahead
I like this but i feel guilty that it probably cost Elliot Smith a lot and I don't love it. It has all the right stuff in all the right places but I'd rather watch hours of youtube videos explaining it than listening to it. It's a conflicted 7 with a 9 reserved for the hypothetical documentary explaining how to play it hosted by the people it's written about.
