“Between the Bars” is about the ways in which protecting somebody you love turns into the need to control that person. It’s not a love song, exactly, and it’s not a song about addiction, exactly. Nowhere is this clearer than “Between the Bars,” the closest thing to a modern-day standard Smith ever wrote and covered by everyone from Metric to Madonna.

And yet, Smith-as with many truly great songwriters-used this specificity as a way to explore emotional themes that resonate both deeply and broadly. The sounds and words of Either/Or often conjure very specific images, textures, and situations. Thankfully, this 20th anniversary remaster doesn't smooth out too many of those rough edges-if anything, it brings the unique sound of the record into even clearer focus. It’s too ambitious to read as “lo-fi” and too gritty to read as straightforward pop classicism. A year prior, his former band Heatmiser had been put through that very ringer, an experience captured in Either/Or standouts “Pictures of Me” and “Angeles.” Either/Or sounds like the work of somebody who has zero interest in either conforming to or directly transgressing the “commercial” sounds of the day.

By the time Either/Or was released in 1997, Smith was no stranger to the cynical machinations of the post-grunge major label gold rush.

Elliott smith either or expanded