Song: "Seven"
Artist: Sunny Day Real Estate
Album: Diary
Length: 4:45
Year: 1994
Label: Sub Pop
Rating: 4 stars (out of 5) in All Music Guide
I remember watching SDRE perform "Seven" live on the old Jon Stewart Show when it was on MTV in 1994 and it remains to this day the most breathtaking performances I've ever seen on television. I'm not sure I had heard the song by then, but if I hadn't, that certainly sparked my love for the band, who are generally regarded as the first "emo" band, a genre that basically killed itself in the ensuing years, and I remember loving the debut album Diary and its untitled follow-up (generally called LP2). The band broke up between 1995 and 1997, rumored because of the conversion to Christianity of lead singer Jeremy Enigk, but resurfaced for the brilliant 1998 release How It Feels to Be Something On and a great follow-up Live album in 1999. Sadly, their 2000 release The Rising Tide lurched fully into their prog-rock tendencies, which I did not enjoy. Their label went bankrupt around the same time and they split up again, with Enigk and a couple band members reforming as The Fire Theft, a full-out prog-rock band, and Dan Hoerner no longer involved. Enigk has since recorded a solo album on his own label, a decade after his The Return of the Frog Queen was once a much-loved album of mine. I can't say I'm a SDRE fan anymore - obviously they have broken up, but I'm no longer listening to any of their recordings and haven't enjoyed anything by Enigk since 1999. But somehow this song (and Jon Stewart for that matter) lives on for me, just an amazingly pure blast of sonic beauty... a type of emotional and beautiful music I'd never heard before (or really since). Take a listen, even though the lyrics, even at this late date, remain indecipherable, so I'm not sure how accurate these are.
#23 Favorite Song of All-Time
Sew it on
Face the fool
December's tragic drive
When time is poetry
And stolen the world outside
The waiting (could) crush my heart
Sew it on
Face the fool
The tide breaks a wave of fear
When brave songs disappear
The secret voice of dawn
This last time
Raise my eyes
You'll taste it
You'll taste it
In time (4x)
The right words
In time
The right words
In time
Sew it on
Face the fool
The mirrors lie
Those aren't my eyes
Destroy them
Raise my hand
Reflects in savage shards
A new face, soul reborn
You'll taste it
You'll taste it
In time (4x)
The right words
In time
The right words
In time
Great choice - I love this song and I hadn't thought of it in quite a while. One of my best friends is William Goldsmith's cousin, SDRE's drummer. She said the same thing about the cause of their initial breakup in 1995.
Posted by: Ryan | March 28, 2008 at 07:24 PM
mmmm SDRE.
What about Enigk's solo work?
Posted by: Jen | April 02, 2008 at 01:19 PM