I wanna see it explode
By reading this blog, and this post in particular, you’d probably get the feeling that I have some kind of deep love for Sunny Day Real Estate, but the reality is, I totally don’t. I obsessed about Diary for the length of exactly one summer – one which happened to be like 8 years after the album’s release.
I could never get intrigued by the whole “the singer’s christian and he’s breaking up the band but now he’s not anymore and the band is back together but only kind of and this time they’re calling it The Fire Theft” thing. It never interested me. Also, The Fire Theft never interested me. I like the first track OK but it never grabbed hold.
You know that feeling I’m talking about when by all logic and reason, this album that you’re listening to should be like the second fucking coming of Christ, but really, you can take it or leave it? That’s been The Fire Theft for me and so when I had a chance to listen to and review a new solo album from Jeremy Enigk, the lead singer from Sunny Day Real Estate/The Fire Theft, I approached it with weary trepidation. After all, I’m not that big of an SDRE fan (even though I feel like I should be, and I’ve mentioned them a disproportionate number of times here) and the latest stuff from that direction seemed kind of, well, blah to me.
And then when the first few fading seconds of A New Beginning (the first track on World Waits, Jeremy Enigk’s second solo album) gave way to sweeping orchestral excellence and that building-drum sound you have to love so much – and the bells! There’s fucking bells! Anyway, when this musical knockout hits the kind of crescendo you don’t think you can live through without either breaking into tears or a gigantic smile, it stops. Everything fades away as quickly as it starts, and you’re treated to the beginning arpeggio of the next track. No (worded) vocals, no chorus, no singable hook, just a fucking musical smack to the face. You can feel it in your stomach when the whole thing hits, provided your headphones are turned up loud enough (as mine so often are).
And I would totally share that with you. I would give you that experience, except… Well, except then you’d need the entire album. You can’t start out with a track like this and not want to go all the way through. And since I can’t give you every track on this EP (well, 10 tracks, but it clocks in at a svelte 36.4 minutes), what I’ll do is this: I’ll give you track number 4, “City Tonight,” which can be taken on its own and enjoyed and should give you a good feel for what’s different here from just about anything else I’ve heard Jeremy record.
And then, because I’m nice, I’m going to pair that song with one by a lesser-known band, Mew, because they do a similar type thing as Jeremy, except they’re actually a little more a) indie and b) hummable.
Buy Jeremy Enigk’s prior album, The Frog Queen on iTunes
Buy Mew’s And The Glass Handed Kiss from iTunes
Flickr Photo Credit