Universally hailed upon release, XO topped best of lists in 1998 and continues to resonate, as powerfully moving as ever, more than 25 years later. The album is consistently included on greatest albums list and was featured on Spin's “Top 125 Albums of the Past 25 Years” and Pitchfork's “Top 100 Albums of the 1990s.” Praising the album, the latter wrote, “Elliott Smith used his DreamWorks debut, XO, as an opportunity to further focus the emotional power of his previous releases. Melancholy and grandiosity may seem mutually exclusive, but on XO, they're combined to wonderful effect, each crystalline guitar line and majestic piano arpeggio adding momentum and depth to Smith's gorgeous and impassioned vocals.”
On XO, Smith shows both his love of McCartney and Lennon, blending perfectly crafted pop songwriting with brutally candid observations that rarely suffered fools. “You can hear it all,” Rolling Stone wrote upon the album’s release. "The graceful folk he’s perfected, elaborate orchestrations, an a cappella song, piano ballads, years of anger released in lilting harmony and a newfound hopefulness couched in energized pop tunes.”
This is the first vinyl pressing of XO [Deluxe Edition] with 9 bonus tracks including “How To Take A Fall,” “The Enemy Is You,” and “Miss Misery.” It features a 2LP gatefold jacket with deluxe edition cover art, 180G opaque brown vinyl, and a limited-edition lithograph of Elliott Smith. It is individually numbered and limited to 4,000 units globally. |
