Sunny Day Real Estate - LP2

Author

Joey K

Published

Monday 9th November

Sub-Pop through Stomp

Let me say up front that coming into this album I was completely unfamiliar with Sunny Day Real Estate but due to their upcoming appearance on Soundwave, not to mention a sentimental connection to early the ‘90’s Sub-Pop / Seattle era, I was drawn to investigate. Despite their record label and hometown though, this is certainly not a grunge band. Their debut album ‘Diary’ is considered to be the birthplace of emo, a tag I would not wish on my worst enemy, but nevertheless an album that is held in high regard by many so I tried to keep an open mind.

The band recorded this follow-up in 1995 and essentially fell apart in the process of making it. In fact they had to scrounge together a couple of unreleased tracks from previous sessions to make up the album. Some lyrics were unfinished and so vocalist Jeremy Enigk made them up at random in the studio. The band turned in the finished product to Sub-Pop with no name and no artwork (hence it’s decidedly uncreative title and empty pink sleeve). They were done.

Listening to ‘LP2’ 15 years later, you can hear the melancholy and angst of four musicians falling apart as a unit. The album is grandiose, restless and schizoid, swinging wildly between gentle ballads and bombastic rock in a not too disimiliar way to Jane’s Addiction but the musicianship, songwriting and energy are not as strong. As a result ‘LP2’ never truly soars, although the centrepiece track “8” comes close. It’s an interesting, if dated, listen, and certainly not as terrible as the “godfathers of emo” tag suggests. Ultimately though, it’s the sound of a band in dissolution rather than at their peak and I’d imagine that ‘Diary’ is a better place to start (and perhaps end) for the uninitiated.

Some Sunny Day members went on to join Foo Fighters (again, they’re doing their best not to endear me), others reformed in the late ‘90’s with a new lineup, again short-lived. The lineup touring Soundwave is apparently the original one that recorded ‘Diary’ and this one. I’d be curious to check it out as long as it doesn’t clash with anything better. Which kind of goes for this album too, which unfortunately has been released the same week as the new Slayer record… and red most definitely beats pink.