Diary | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | May 10, 1994 | |||
Recorded | November 1993 | |||
Studio | Idful, Chicago, Illinois | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 52:47 | |||
Label | Sub Pop | |||
Producer | Brad Wood | |||
Sunny Day Real Estate chronology | ||||
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Singles from Diary | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
The A.V. Club | A [2] |
Drowned in Sound | 8/10 [4] |
Pitchfork | 8.7/10 [5] |
PopMatters | 9/10 [6] |
Q | [7] |
Record Collector | [8] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [9] |
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. [10]
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. [11]
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 album was notably released on the exact same day that Weezer's self-titled album (blue album) was released; May 10, 1994.
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.
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. [12] 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. [13] 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." [14]
Diary has also appeared on best-of emo album lists by Junkee , [15] Kerrang! , [16] LA Weekly , [17] and NME , [18] as well as by journalists Leslie Simon and Trevor Kelley, in their book Everybody Hurts: An Essential Guide to Emo Culture (2007). [19] The album was ranked at number 155 on Spin 's "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985–2014)" list. [20] Ian Cohen from Pitchfork wrote that "it's the terse yet tender delivery of the lyrics from Jeremy Enigk that ultimately drew people in." [5] "In Circles" and "Seven" appeared on a best-of emo songs list by Vulture . [21]
"Seven" was featured in Guitar Hero 5 , and it was also released on the Rock Band Network on July 5, 2010. [22]
In 2020, Vulture ranked "Seven" and "In Circles" as the 5th and 11th greatest emo songs of all time, respectively. [23]
All tracks are written by Jeremy Enigk and Dan Hoerner
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
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 |
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
12. | "8" | 5:15 |
13. | "9" | 6:03 |
Total length: | 64:10 |
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.
Something to Write Home About is the second studio album by American rock band the Get Up Kids, released on September 28, 1999, through Vagrant Records and the band's own label Heroes & Villains Records. Following the promotional tours for their debut album Four Minute Mile (1997), the band were in discussion with Mojo Records. During this period, James Dewees joined as the band's keyboardist. As negotiations with the label eventually stalled, they eventually went with Vagrant Records. They recorded their next album at Mad Hatter Studios in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California, co-producing it with Chad Blinman and Alex Brahl. Described as an emo album, Something to Write Home About expands on the harder edge of its predecessor, with frontman Matt Pryor citing the works of the Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World and Wilco as influences.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"Ten Minutes" is a song by the Get Up Kids. The single was released as part of the Sub Pop Records Singles Club. 1300 pressings were black, with only 100 pressings of the single on clear vinyl. A re-recorded version of it appears on their album Something to Write Home About. On July 2, 2005 The Get Up Kids performed for the last time before their hiatus at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City, MO. "Ten Minutes" was the last song they played.
OK Bear is the title of the fifth release by Sunny Day Real Estate frontman Jeremy Enigk. The album was recorded outside Barcelona during the year 2008.
The discography of Sunny Day Real Estate, a Seattle rock band.
...Is a Real Boy is the second studio album by American rock band Say Anything, released on August 3, 2004.
Awkward & Depressed is the third studio album by internet comedian Jarrod Alonge, released under the moniker of his fictitious emo band Canadian Softball, on July 28, 2017. The album primarily satirizes and parodies tropes found in the emo genre, primarily from the early 2010s emo revival. The album directly parodies bands such as American Football, Modern Baseball, Hawthorne Heights and Hotel Books. The album also features a cover of "Seven" by Sunny Day Real Estate, a first for Alonge.
Citations
[U]nique ... with its bare-boned, visceral raw heart honesty ...
Sources