Diary

Product Details

Product Reviews

(5 stars) - Worth Upgrading to the Remastered Release!
In this age of digital downloads and MP4 magic, I was tempted to go with the download. I could not be happier that I spent the extra buck and went with the hard copy! The new packaging and booklet are worth the purchase alone, not to mention how much better everything sounds. These songs finally received the treatment they have deserved all these years.

(5 stars) - A classic of melancholic creativity and youthful energy
Sunny Day Real Estate
Diary; 1994
Sub Pop Recods

Rating: 10/10

Monumental debut from the emo kings of Seattle, this one's got layers of mystery and heartache poetry, and hey, that Enigk guy was like 19 or something when they recorded this album. Looking back, it's easy to find the flaws in this record, but the great ideas are captured so purely and unpolished here that they outshine any errors. From melodic rockers like "Seven" to floating rain songs like "Song About An Angel" and "The Blankets Were The Stairs" to the piano lullabye about a stuffed monkey, "Pheurton Skeurto", to the feedback-drenched, ethereal lament "Grendel", this album just brims with this fabulous melancholic creativity and youthful energy. Hands down, a classic.

TRACKS:

1. Seven (5/5)
2. In Circles (5/5)
3. Song About An Angel (4/5)
4. Round (3/5)
5. 47 (4/5)
6. The Blankets Were The Stairs (4/5)
7. Pheurton Skeurto (5/5)
8. In the Shadows (4/5)
9. 48 (4/5)
10. Grendel (5/5)
11. Sometimes (5/5)

(4 stars) - It's a Tough Call
Sunny Day Real Estate's debut is one of the coolest CDs I've heard in a while. Their stuff is provocative, original, and best of all, not easy to like. This is the kind of album where learning to appreciate it is an achievement. My first time through, it seemed devoid of melody with enough grating screams thrown in to make it a bit of a chore to listen to. But on my second time, I found that the subtle melodies were secretly brilliant, and simply overshadowed by the strange, harsh sound of the music.

Tracks 1-3 and 7-9 are extraordinary, featuring sweet guitar riffage and brooding, dark melodies. The rest of the tracks are not your typical filler. The problem is that they have a tendency to go from pleasant, dark melody to ferocious, unrestrained yelling and grungy guitar with no breaks. They are difficult to listen to and not as strong as the 6 tracks I listed. My favorites are "Shadows," which has a strong enough melody and guitar-line to make up for the yelling vocal, and "Pheurton Skeurto," a brief, lilting piano ballad that I've grown to love after a few listens.

Overall, I'm glad I bought this, but if you're looking for easy thrills, you won't find them here. This music takes time and at least a limited musical intellect and appreciation to get into. But it's worth the trouble.

(4 stars) - Packs a nice punch even if it is a bit strained at times
3 1/2

Hard hitting, earnest alternative punk's heavily cited, and rightfully so, disc explores some of the early origins of the sub-genre that has gotten nothing but stomped on in the past 5-10 years due to heavy and unflattering imitators- emo. In 1994 however, most of the brittle emotional truths pouring out of this unit while recording what would become known as their masterwork ended up resonating with a lasting purity that still holds up to this day while compatriots usually fail to emulate anything as raw. Sure, the band's heart-on-sleeve ethos does not necessarily fill out all of the compositional trajectory, particularly in the latter half. And while the vocalist remains a distinct fusion of vulnerability, sorrow, and ugliness, some of his inflections tend to get a bit repetitive (ie: how he will stretch out too many lines in that purposely grating tone of his). Flaws intact, Diary is still a potent reminder for some of the lesser known (albeit classic in it's own right) amazing discs to come out of that era when Independent record labels still usually meant something inspiring.

Popular Searches in Music