Elliott Smith: Either/Or (Domino) ****½

THE FIRST thing you'll hear is a slight whisper, a lone voice sighing with warm-hearted devotion. Then a few similarly sensitive souls will chip in, eyes and smiles as wide as the Pacific, gushing about values you thought the late Nineties had forgotten about — empathy, humility, soul. And before you know it, everyone you care about — first your close friends, then the whole beautiful world — will be part of the Elliott Smith Hype Phenomenon.