Leathermouth: XO

It's been a long, strange trip for Elliott Smith, the shy singer/songwriter who's gone from the loud punk-rock band Heatmiser to a quiet solo career to a place on stage at the Academy Awards alongside Celine Dion and Trisha Yearwood. But in a way, the transition makes sense: Like his similarly indie-rock-rooted pal Mary Lou Lord—who's now doing dates on the Lilith Fair, and whose recent Got No Shadow could have been a slightly less pneumatic Lisa Loeb record—Smith's recent output is milder than all the hipster buzz would have the uninitiated believe. Now, that doesn't mean his four solo albums, the new major-label debut XO included, aren't mostly great: XO peters out toward the end, and it lacks a dramatic home run like Either/Or's beautiful show-stopper "Between The Bars," but it's full of elegant, lovely, understated, Simon & Garfunkel-esque pop songs. The arrangements are a bit busier than those on the album's predecessors—on many of its songs, he dresses up his spare, mostly acoustic arrangements with lush strings and pianos—but for the most part, Smith's inimitably soft, introspective sound remains intact. "Sweet Adeline," "Waltz #2 (XO)," "Baby Britain," and "Independence Day" are all catchy, sweetly lilting pop songs, while "Bled White" has a rock feel that's augmented by a heavily overdubbed chorus, and "Amity" is downright aggressive. Smith's most resonant material is also his quietest: "Pitseleh," "Tomorrow, Tomorrow," and "Oh Well, Okay" are often harrowingly gorgeous. Slicker-than-usual production values aside, XO doesn't try to reinvent Smith's sound, which means it's another fine entry in an immensely appealing catalog.