Diary (Sunny Day Real Estate album)

Last updated
Diary
Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary.jpg
Studio album by
Sunny Day Real Estate
ReleasedMay 10, 1994 (1994-05-10)
RecordedNovember 1993
Studio Idful, Chicago, Illinois
Genre
Length52:47
Label Sub Pop
Producer Brad Wood
Sunny Day Real Estate chronology
Diary
(1994)		 Sunny Day Real Estate
(1995)
Singles from Diary
  1. "Seven"
    Released: 1994
  2. "In Circles"
    Released: 1994

Diary is the debut studio album by American rock band Sunny Day Real Estate, released on May 10, 1994. The album is considered by many to be a defining emo album of the second wave, [1] and key in the development of its subgenre, Midwest emo. It has also been called the missing link between post-hardcore and the nascent emo genre. [4]

Contents

Diary was remastered and reissued in 2009, with bonus tracks "8" and "9" from their 1993 7-inch Thief, Steal Me a Peach and newly written liner notes. [5]

Overview

The songlist started with six tracks written by Thief, Steal Me a Peach, a project started when bassist Nate Mendel went on tour with his other project Christ on a Crutch, and drummer William Goldsmith invited his friend Jeremy Enigk to jam with him and guitarist and then singer Dan Hoerner. The first songs afterwards had titles regarding their order in composing - "Seven", "8" and "9", though only the first appeared on Diary. The band had a tradition of numbering songs for title long before Jeremy's arrival.

The songs "47" and "48" were actually the two first songs written since his arrival before resetting the song's numbers. The opening riff from "Round" was influenced by indie rock band Treepeople, while "48" and "Grendel" both feature guitar parts inspired by Fugazi. [6]

The album was released on CD, vinyl and cassette. The vinyl has been released in three limited edition pressings, all of which are out of print. The first was a multi-colored splatter vinyl, released on Glitterhouse Records in Germany. The second was a black vinyl pressing on Sub Pop. A repress followed on green vinyl (and possibly a second black pressing), but the label for this second pressing states "Edition II" under the Sub Pop logo. All three vinyl pressings are missing 3 songs that are present on the CD, possibly due to the time constraints of vinyl, as the album clocks in at 53 minutes. The missing songs are "Round", "48" and "Grendel". The 2009 double LP re-issue contains all 11 songs from the original album, and two bonus tracks.

The artwork of the album was almost entirely done by Chris Thompson. However, the "butterfly" drawing on the album's booklet was created by Nate Mendel's father. The album cover features figures similar to those of popular children's toy Little People.

Legacy

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
The A.V. Club A [2]
Drowned in Sound 8/10 [7]
Pitchfork 8.7/10 [8]
PopMatters 9/10 [9]
Q Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [10]
Record Collector Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [11]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [12]

The album was different from those released by popular Seattle grunge bands at the time. Its melodic but urgent sound has had a clear mark on future emo groups. [13] Despite being the only album by the band to never chart, it has since become the seventh best-selling album released on Sub Pop, having sold more than 231,000 copies. [14] In a retrospective article about the 40 greatest emo albums of all time, Rolling Stone wrote that Diary "captures the vague inner-turmoil of Enigk's lyrics and propels those turbulent emotions to the heavens." [15]

Diary has also appeared on best-of emo album lists by Junkee , [16] Kerrang! , [17] LA Weekly , [18] and NME , [19] as well as by journalists Leslie Simon and Trevor Kelley, in their book Everybody Hurts: An Essential Guide to Emo Culture (2007). [20] The album was ranked at number 155 on Spin 's "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985–2014)" list. [21] Ian Cohen from Pitchfork wrote that "it's the terse yet tender delivery of the lyrics from Jeremy Enigk that ultimately drew people in." [8] "In Circles" and "Seven" appeared on a best-of emo songs list by Vulture . [22]

"Seven" was featured in Guitar Hero 5 , and it was also released on the Rock Band Network on July 5, 2010. [23]

In 2020, Vulture ranked "Seven" and "In Circles" as the 5th and 11th greatest emo songs of all time, respectively. [24]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Jeremy Enigk and Dan Hoerner

No.TitleLength
1."Seven"4:45
2."In Circles"4:58
3."Song About an Angel"6:14
4."Round"4:10
5."47"4:34
6."The Blankets Were the Stairs"5:27
7."Pheurton Skeurto"2:33
8."Shadows"4:46
9."48"4:46
10."Grendel"4:53
11."Sometimes"5:43
Total length:52:52
Reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
12."8"5:15
13."9"6:03
Total length:64:10

Personnel

Sunny Day Real Estate
Additional personnel

Related Research Articles

Emo is a music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and post-hardcore from the mid-1980s Washington, D.C. hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands Rites of Spring and Embrace, among others, pioneered the genre. In the early-to-mid 1990s, emo was adopted and reinvented by alternative rock, indie rock, punk rock, and pop-punk bands, including Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Cap'n Jazz, and Jimmy Eat World. By the mid-1990s, Braid, the Promise Ring, and the Get Up Kids emerged from Midwest emo, and several independent record labels began to specialize in the genre. Meanwhile, screamo, a more aggressive style of emo using screamed vocals, also emerged, pioneered by the San Diego bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow. Screamo achieved mainstream success in the 2000s with bands like Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, Story of the Year, Thursday, the Used, and Underoath.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nate Mendel</span> American bassist

Nathan ‍Gregor ‍Mendel is an American musician who is the bass guitarist for the rock band Foo Fighters, as well as a former member of Sunny Day Real Estate. He has also worked with musical acts The Jealous Sound and The Fire Theft. He has released one solo album, If I Kill This Thing We're All Going to Eat for a Week, under the name Lieutenant. Aside from the Foo Fighters' lead vocalist and founder Dave Grohl, he is the second-longest-serving member of the band, and he is the only member to have appeared on all of the band's studio albums as a full band, since The Colour and the Shape.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Goldsmith</span> American musician (born 1972)

William Goldsmith is an American drummer who is a member of Sunny Day Real Estate and Assertion, and a former member of Foo Fighters. He has toured with Mike Watt and IQU, and played live with several bands and artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sunny Day Real Estate</span> American rock band

Sunny Day Real Estate is an American emo band from Seattle, Washington, formed in 1992. The band currently consists of founding members Jeremy Enigk, Dan Hoerner (guitar) and William Goldsmith (drums), alongside Greg Suran (guitar), who originally played with the band between 2000 and 2001, and Chris Jordan (bass), who joined the band in 2022. Founding bass guitarist Nate Mendel was a member of the band during three of its four incarnations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Fire Theft</span> American rock band

The Fire Theft was an American rock band from Seattle, Washington. They were formed in 2001 by vocalist/guitarist Jeremy Enigk, bassist Nate Mendel, and drummer William Goldsmith, all of whom were previously members of Sunny Day Real Estate. Mendel also plays bass for Foo Fighters, and Goldsmith drummed for Foo Fighters between 1995 and 1997. This lineup of The Fire Theft was three-fourths of the original personnel of Sunny Day Real Estate, with guitarist Dan Hoerner not rejoining his former bandmates.

<i>How It Feels to Be Something On</i> 1998 studio album by Sunny Day Real Estate

How It Feels to Be Something On is the third studio album by American rock band Sunny Day Real Estate, and the first following their 1997 reunion. It was released September 8, 1998.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan Hoerner</span> American guitarist, vocalist and author (born 1969)

Dan Hoerner is an American guitarist, vocalist and author. He is known for being the lead guitarist and backing vocalist of the Seattle-based band Sunny Day Real Estate.

<i>Sunny Day Real Estate</i> (album) 1995 studio album by Sunny Day Real Estate

Sunny Day Real Estate is the second studio album by American rock band Sunny Day Real Estate. The band's label, Sub Pop, distributed the album under the title LP2. Due to its simple pink cover, the album is often referred to as "The Pink Album". It was the band's final release to feature founding bassist Nate Mendel until their single "Lipton Witch", released in 2014 after their third breakup.

<i>The Fire Theft</i> (album) 2003 studio album by The Fire Theft

The Fire Theft is the debut and only studio album by American rock band The Fire Theft. This album was released September 23, 2003, through the independent record label Rykodisc. In September 2019, the service Run Out Groove made a poll on their site to test demand for vinyl reissues of their catalog, with one of the choices being The Fire Theft. The album won out, and was subsequently remastered and reissued with new artwork.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Enigk</span> American musician

Jeremy Enigk is an American singer-songwriter, vocalist and guitarist/multi-instrumentalist. He is known as a solo artist, a film score composer, and as the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist of the Seattle-based bands Sunny Day Real Estate and The Fire Theft.

<i>Return of the Frog Queen</i> 1996 studio album by Jeremy Enigk

Return of the Frog Queen is a solo album by Jeremy Enigk, recorded following his brief retirement from music due to the temporary split of Sunny Day Real Estate. It was recorded with a 21-piece orchestra and released in 1996. It has a slower and quieter sound than Sunny Day Real Estate's often-bombastic albums.

<i>Live</i> (Sunny Day Real Estate album) 1999 live album by Sunny Day Real Estate

Live is a live album by American emo band Sunny Day Real Estate. A set list from the How it Feels to Be Something On tour, it was recorded on May 26, 1999, in Eugene, OR and released in the same year through Sub Pop. The VHS included the promo music videos for "Seven" and "In Circles".

<i>The Rising Tide</i> (Sunny Day Real Estate album) 2000 studio album by Sunny Day Real Estate

The Rising Tide is the fourth studio album by American rock band Sunny Day Real Estate. Following the release of Live, the group left independent label Sub Pop for major label Time Bomb Recordings, and changed from a quartet to a trio. The band spent a month working on material through jamming, eventually resulting in around 30 songs. They began recording at Dreamland Recording Studios in West Hurley, New York with producer Lou Giordano at the end of 1999. The Rising Tide is an arena rock album, with elements of progressive rock and symphonic rock; the lyrics includes references to rain, angels and the ocean. Individual tracks drew comparison to Rush, Yes and Doves, while frontman Jeremy Enigk's vocals were compared to Yes frontman Jon Anderson and U2 frontman Bono.

<i>Brother, Sister</i> 2006 studio album by MewithoutYou

Brother, Sister is the third studio album by indie rock band mewithoutYou, released on September 26, 2006 through Tooth & Nail Records. It features guest vocal and instrumental appearances by several artists, including Jeremy Enigk, harpist Timbre, and members of Anathallo and the Psalters. From August 9, 2007, Burnt Toast Vinyl were taking pre-orders for an LP-format version of the album. The album features an abundance of symbolism, much of which is tied to animals; at least one can be found in the lyrics of each track.

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References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Huey, Steve. "Diary – Sunny Day Real Estate". AllMusic . Retrieved April 5, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Ryan, Kyle (September 22, 2009). "Sunny Day Real Estate: Diary / LP2". The A.V. Club . Retrieved April 5, 2016.
  3. ↑ Grubbs, Eric (October 2, 2009). "Sunny Day Real Estate Reunites At Just The Right Time". Dallas Observer .
  4. ↑ - Monday (2010-05-25). "Sub Pop at 20: life after grunge - The National". Thenational.ae. Archived from the original on 2013-10-22. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  5. ↑ "Sub Pop Records : Sunny Day Real Estate : Diary" (2009 ed.). Subpop.com. 2009-09-15. Archived from the original on 2012-02-17. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  6. ↑ "The making of diary by sunny day real estate - featuring jeremy enigk, Dan Hoerner and William Goldsmith". Life of the Record. 2024. Archived from the original on August 1, 2024. Retrieved December 27, 2024.
  7. ↑ Metcalfe, Will (October 15, 2009). "Album Review: Sunny Day Real Estate – Diary and LP2 (reissues)". Drowned in Sound . Archived from the original on April 24, 2016. Retrieved April 5, 2016.
  8. 1 2 Cohen, Ian (September 3, 2009). "Sunny Day Real Estate: Diary / LP2". Pitchfork . Retrieved April 5, 2016.
  9. ↑ Jayasuriya, Mehan (September 14, 2009). "In Circles: Sunny Day Real Estate Reconsidered". PopMatters . Retrieved April 5, 2016.
  10. ↑ "Sunny Day Real Estate: Diary". Q . No. 99. December 1994. p. 147.
  11. ↑ "Sunny Day Real Estate: Diary". Record Collector . 2009. pp. 108–09. [U]nique ... with its bare-boned, visceral raw heart honesty ...
  12. ↑ Randall, Mac (2004). "Sunny Day Real Estate". In Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian (eds.). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide (4th ed.). Simon & Schuster. p.  793. ISBN   0-7432-0169-8.
  13. ↑ Moss, Corey (2006-10-16). "Emo Stars Worship Them, So Should Sunny Day Real Estate Reunite? - Music, Celebrity, Artist News". MTV. Archived from the original on October 26, 2006. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  14. ↑ "Sub Pop Turns 20, Sends Zach Braff An FTD Bouquet | Music News, Reviews, and Gossip on". Idolator.com. 2008-01-29. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  15. ↑ Galil L., Bayer J., Burgess A., Spanos B., Exposito S., & Montgomery, J. 40 Greatest Emo Albums of All Time. (2016, March 1). Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 29, 2016.
  16. ↑ Davino, Bianca (February 18, 2020). "From 'Three Cheers' To 'Bleed American': The 10 Most Important Emo Albums". Junkee. Retrieved August 17, 2020.
  17. ↑ Freitas, Ryan de (May 12, 2020). "The 20 Best Pre-2000s Emo Albums". Kerrang!. Archived from the original on May 26, 2020. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  18. ↑ Whipple, Kelsey (October 10, 2013). "Top 20 Emo Albums in History: Complete List". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on June 26, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2020.
  19. ↑ "20 Emo Albums That Have Resolutely Stood The Test Of Time". NME. January 14, 2015. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
  20. ↑ Simon; Kelley 2007, p. 168
  21. ↑ Martins, Chris (May 11, 2015). "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985–2014)". Spin. p. 3. Retrieved August 6, 2015.
  22. ↑ Cohen, Ian; Nelson, Brad (February 13, 2020). "The 100 Greatest Emo Songs of All Time". Vulture. Archived from the original on February 13, 2020. Retrieved August 14, 2020.
  23. ↑ "Seven by Sunny Day Real Estate // Songs // Rock Band®". Rockband.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-05. Retrieved 2012-02-13.
  24. ↑ Cohen, Ian (2020-02-13). "The 100 Greatest Emo Songs of All Time". Vulture. Retrieved 2023-10-28.

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