Album A Day: Sunny Day Real Estate – Diary

Artist: Sunny Day Real Estate
Album: Diary
Release Date: May 10, 1994

Every decade and every period in music history has albums or bands that precious few have heard of, but did wonders for the musical landscape. In the mid-1990s, Sunny Day Real Estate was one such band. Anytime in the last decade or so a band was described as being “emo”, it’s a result of Sunny Day Real Estate’s debut album. Let’s get one thing straight; Emo began in the mid-80s with folks like Minor Threat and Rites of Spring, gained its first mainstream appeal with Diary and its single “Seven”, and quite frankly, was butchered and brutally murdered sometime in the early 00’s when frauds like New Found Glory and Simple Plan (and to some extent, Fall Out Boy, though that can also be blamed on an ignorant media bandying the term about recklessly) took whiny pop-punk and slapped the word on it. Without Diary, bands like Jimmy Eat World, Dashboard Confessional, and Taking Back Sunday, all of whom at one point wore the emo moniker with pride and purity of intention, wouldn’t even be footnotes in the annals of music history.

Diary is an album loaded with unadulterated, captivating alternative rock that tugs at the heartstrings with reckless abandon. Jeremy Enigk’s tortured wails are genuinely gut-wrenching, in spite of the fact that his cries of heartbreak often come out barely intelligible. The fact that neither he nor the band (featuring Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith, two future Foo Fighters) leave anything on the table forgives the usual knocks received by bands of the “emo” subgenre. Diary may not be a pretty album in several respects, but neither is it anything less than a fantastic exploration of rare proportions. It may not be the most well known album in its genre, but it’s certainly a critical one who’s contributions are too frequently forgotten amidst its more popular descendants.

Sunny Day Real Estate – Seven [iTunes] (YSI)

==TJ==