3. XO – Elliott Smith
In the last years of the 90s, those wonderful years when I was earning money but had no expenses, I went and bought just about anything recommended by to me by friends, magazines and record store clerks. So when a friend told me she was in love with this weird fellow, and when I read a little interview with him Drum Media, looking cute as an angry button on a couch with a beanie, I went out and bought the album.
I’ve never heard Miss Misery at this point, I wasn’t old enough for arthouse movies and never cared for the Academy awards. So it’s just Elliott and me, through these songs. And obviously, it’s so catchy, and so Beatle-esque, it hit.