xo

tracklist

sweet adeline, tomorrow tomorrow, waltz #2 (xo), baby britain, pitseleh, independence day, bled white, waltz #1, amity, oh well, okay, bottle up and explode!, a question mark, everybody cares, everybody understands, i didn't understand

album info

produced, recorded and mixed by tom rothrock, rob schnapf, elliott and larry crane, xo became elliott's first major release since heatmiser's mic city sons.

released by dreamworks, elliott had already been working on the record before getting notice from the music featured on the good will hunting soundtrack and eventually previewed most of the songs way before the august release

japanese import version features an extra track: miss misery. this version is a little bit deff. than the other versions you find on the good will hunting. the first 'guitar note' isn't there.

bsides released to promote xo: our thing, waltz #1 (demo), the enemy is you, some song (alternative version), bottle up & explode! (early version), division day, some song, and how to take a fall

known unreleased songs recorded during the xo sessions is happiness

strange parallel released during this time and the only music video off xo is baby britain.

printed inside of the cover of the cd was a url for what was suppose to be elliott's first official website, www.alphabet-town.com. a page did exist with a coming soon message as well as a free download of our thing which featured sam coomes and janet weiss from quasi. the site eventually became a part of the dreamworks site and never a stand alone site until elliottsmith.net came along in 2000

available on cd, cassette and lp

promo #1

a really early promo of xo. as you can see the order of the record is different from what eventually became xo: tomorrow tomorrow, waltz #2 (xo), baby britain, pitzella, everybody cares, everybody understands, bled white, waltz #1, amity, oh well, okay, bottle up and explode!, a question mark, sweet adeline, i didn't understand

pitseleh was spelled pitzella on the promo

independence day was not included on this promo because it was added at the last minute

promo copies are usually distributed to various outlets including radio, media and stores to help promote and introduce an album before it comes out to help build interest. media can use them to prepare reviews and articles for coverage around the time the record comes out, while stores might use them to make sure fans know elliott's new record is coming out soon! radio stations get them in hope they will play it and introduce elliott to many more new fans while again letting old fans know a new elliott record is coming out.

available on cd

promo #2

a final version promo of xo. the previous promo had a different song order.

independence day is included on this promo. early promos did not included independence day.e new fans while again letting old fans know a new elliott record is coming out.

available on cd

production notes

recorded at sunset sound, sound factory, ocean way and sonora, los angeles, ca. except baby britain and amity which was recorded at jackpot!, portland, or. released 8.25.98

songs by elliott smith. strings and horns arranged by elliott smith with tom halm and shelly berg

jon brion played chamberlain, vibes on everybody cares, everybody understands, waltz #1, and bottle up and explode!. drum loop on inpedence day by tom rothrock, rob schnapf played guitar on baby britain, joey waronker played drums on bled white and bottle up and explode! tons of orchestra artists played on xo too

sleeve by johnson and wolverton, portland, or, photgraphs by eric matthies

a dreamworks release