At a small independent record shop in Arizona back in 1997, Elliott Smith introduced a new song called "I Figured You Out" by saying, "Want to hear a stupid pop song I wrote in about a minute?"
The track didn't make it to the final cut of his cherished Either/Or album (it was recorded instead by Mary Lou Ford) and it seemed the song was destined to live on in YouTube deep cut obscurity—until now. Larry Crane, a recording engineer (and friend of Smith's) came across original recordings of the track as he dug through tapes from the project's original studio sessions. A cleaned up version will appear on a two-disc remastered reissue of the album for its 20th anniversary (featuring a bonus collection of previously unreleased material).
Crane tells Pigeons & Planes, "The demo of 'I Figured You Out' was something I looked for while sourcing and mixing the tracks for [2007 posthumous album] New Moon and Joanna Bolme had told me it did exist. It wasn’t until I started the real archiving project, and had a bunch of the digital tapes from the Heatmiser House studio era transferred (where they tracked 'Mic City Sons'), that I found the multi-track of this song.'"
Explaining that Smith recorded loads of material that didn't made the album, Crane says that "I Figured You Out" stood out above the rest.
"It’s definitely one of the most interesting 'lost' songs since 'New Moon' and everyone felt it would complement this release," Crane tells us. "There was certainly a decision to not bury the listener in too many bonus songs on Either/Or: Expanded Edition, so we kept it pretty lean and unique."
Listen to the song below, and look out for the full reissue of Either/Or via Kill Rock Stars on March 10.
