On Tuesday, another Elliot Smith tribute was released, called To: Elliot, From: Portland. As the title suggests, all the songs here are performed by Portland-based bands, most of whom were related in some way to Smith himself.

I first heard about this album from Stereogum several weeks ago. The comments section of that post—Stereogum readers of course being known for their tolerance of diversity in opinion and taste, and allowance for subjectivity, and reluctance to make ad hominem remarks—is nevertheless a profusion of absurdly scathing and hysterical remarks, many among them suggesting that covering songs by a dead man is always going to be disrespectful and exploitative. Furthermore, there’s a prevailing sentiment, rather common whenever a beloved artist is emulated, that covering Elliott Smith’s songs is tantamount to blasphemy. So, given these criteria, I suppose people had better stop covering the Beatles, Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Elvis, and about a gazillion other deceased rock stars. And from the uproar in response to the mp3 Stereogum included in the aforementioned post (Crosstide’s synth-drenched cover of “Angeles”) you would have thought someone had taken a shit on the steps of the Vatican, the outcry was so self-righteously, Manhattan-Portage-bag-hurlingly shrill.

I can’t dispute the fact that, in general, there’s no dearth of covers that seem pointless because the originals were pretty much perfect to begin with. Depending on your taste, there are probably a few examples of that on this album. The Thermals’ cover of “Ballad Of Big Nothing” isn’t terribly interesting, playing it safe and barely departing from the original. To be sure, the most compelling renditions here are the ones that aim insanely wide of the mark and, for better or worse, end up far, far away from their progenitors. To wit: the aforementioned Crosstide, Knock-Knock’s take on “Speed Trials”, or the weirdest, ballsiest entry, Life Savas’ cover of “Happiness”, which I guarantee most of the Elliot Smith diehards, whose minds probably weren’t sufficiently open to begin with, will hate. But Live Savas, and several of the other artists here, remind us that covers are never meant to replace the original, but rather to stand alongside it, or above or below, or, I don’t know, slightly behind and to the left. They’re love letters: rarely rational, never prudent, but always delivered with the best of intentions.

In my opinion the majority of these covers are interesting and agreeable: The Helio Sequence’s “Satellite” is lush and mournful and, dare I say, an improvement on the original. “Needle In The Hay” will always be known as the stark accompaniment to Luke Wilson’s vein-opening, but Eric Matthews’ brash rendition is a perfect template for how to depart sufficiently from an original while retaining its original impact. I would like to see more songs from my favorite ES album, xo, represented here, but the great thing about an artist whose popularity inspires this many tributes is that, in the years to come, I could probably assemble at least two separate iterations of xo tributes by various talented people who will continue returning to the well.

Elliot Smith himself was known for terrific covers—from “Because” (and about half a dozen other songs) by the Beatles to an understated acoustic rendition of Big Star’s “Thirteen”, to a raucous live cover of “Don’t Fear The Reaper” that I once had on a bootleg somewhere. And of course, he produced a large but tragically abbreviated songwriting legacy to which I don’t think he’d mind this assembly of his hometown’s artists paying homage. We all did our share of hand-wringing over the untimeliness of his death and the mystery of its attendant circumstances, but at the end of the day the best response to art is still more art. I’m not about to try and get inside the head of a man who may or may not have died at his own hand, but it’s pretty hard for me to believe he’s doing subterranean 360s everytime someone takes a sincere crack at one of his songs.

Update: This post has been rendered at least a little redundant by a far more widely-read outlet, but I’m startled at how many of my points they echoed—in a veritable paroxysm of indie-rock referentiality, they even cite the infamous Stereogum post. Just for the record, I posted my review several hours before they did, so don’t sue me for plagiarism, okay Ryan?