Sunny Day Real Estate
The Rising Tide
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Sunny Day Real Estate
The Rising Tide
Time Bomb/Arista, 2000
RiYL: Radiohead, Jimmy Eat World, No Knife, Rush, Yes |
For starters, SDRE is here presented as a trio, with Enigk assuming bass duties more out of necessity than any virtuosity, much less previous experience, on the instrument. The Rising Tide also crowns the group's departure from Sub Pop in favor of pseudo major-label Time Bomb, and is its first without regular producer Greg Williamson, who has here been abdicated in favor of Lou Giordano and his "big rock" wall of sound.
What's truly amazing is how little The Rising Tide has in common with SDRE's first two albums, particularly 1994's Diary, a seminal document of chaotic, post-grunge hardcore. The seething emotion that powered that album is still largely present, but any semblance of spontaniety seems to have been painted over by layer upon layer of production, leaving a slick, scripted aftertaste unexpected from a band that previously did so much with so little. Where once Enigk could shout out incomprehensible lyrics and still whip audiences into a frenzy, his newfound clarity of voice and purpose here actually puts the listener at an uncomfortable distance.
So, what does it actually sound like? Although the move toward a cleaner, bigger sound was certainly felt on SDRE's 1998 reunion set How It Feels To Be Something On, that progression here yields a host of parallels to both Rush and Yes, two incredibly unlikely reference points for a band that once seemed primed to carry Fugazi's torch into the next millennium. The sense of rediscovery that permeated Something has faded. Instead, "Killed By An Angel" claims Rush's outdated arena-rock bombast as its own, while "Disappear" conjures bad dreams of Yes' John Anderson fronting pre-Achtung Baby-era U2.
Sure, SDRE has always flirted with prog-rock machinations, but some of these songs are just too over the top to be written off as experiments in musical nostalgia. Enigk shifts himself into mantra mode more than ever, as on first single "One," with its uncharacteristically mundane rallying cry: "everything and everyone / and in the end, we all are one." His television-as-substitute-for-love metaphor on "Television" works as a surface observation, but apparently penetrates no deeper. And who knows what "Snibe" is supposed to represent, Enigk called "it" a "monster" in the press materials for this album. Whatever the case, the lyrical ambiguity doesn't jibe with the intensity of its accompanying music, rarely a problem on past efforts.
On one hand, it's tough to fault Enigk and company for broadening the range of their music. Indeed, there are some genuinely pretty and affecting songs here, when Giordano's broad strokes don't obscure them. "The Ocean" marries sweet, Beatles-y verses to tense, power chord-laden choruses with satisfying results, while the largely acoustic, string-tinged "Rain Song" and the swaying "Tearing In My Heart" recall the attention to melodic detail found in Peter Gabriel's most elegant material.
Yet, something is amiss on other slower tracks like "Faces In Disguise" and the title cut, neither of which would have made any sense at all on Diary or The Pink Album. It just seems wrong to hear note-perfect singing and shimmery, Cure-style guitar and synthesizer haze from a band that can rock with such abandon. After 11 deadly serious songs of tested faith, broken hearts, and soul-searching, one wishes SDRE would just kick back a little and have some fun.
The Rising Tide is not a terrible album. It features some of the catchiest melodies SDRE has ever penned, and may very well be the bridge to mainstream acceptance for which its members seem to be striving. But although 3/4th of the players are the same, this is, for all intents and purposes, a completely different band than the one who, with Diary, forever welded emo to emo-core. Get past the prog, the production, and the preachiness, and there's still a lot to like. But in the long run, it's likely that the history, and the sound, that Sunny Day Real Estate has left behind will always be the most compelling.
JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"