How It Feels to Be Something On

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Product Reviews

(5 stars) - How it feels to be something brilliant...
True or false: SDRE are a pioneering force in the emo genre? Answer: Who cares? Fact: They are unquestionably one of the most enigmatic and talented bands of the past fifteen years. I'm a reformed emo basher (check out my Tool review)who has finally learned that as a reviewer there's only one thing that matters: The quality of the music.

HDIFTBSO is as imaginative, heart felt and beautiful as any recording I've ever heard... simple yet complex...familiar yet strange. Listen closely and you hear some of their influences: chiming guitars swirling between a Smithy jangle and U2 edginess; late period Lennon/Beatles vocals mixed with the occasional Jon Anderson falsetto.

The music goes well beyond their influences. I once knew a guitar player who 90% of the time was quite ordinary. But then sometimes, unexpectedly, after a bridge or musical break would play something so unique, so beautiful that time seemed to stand still and he would leave listeners breathless. This, my friends is what this album is like. Most of the the songs twist, turn and take on many forms. The CD reveals its limitless depths with every spin... Just like those transcendent moments of the guitarist I mentioned.

Highlights: Pillars, Every Shining Time You Arrive, How it Feels to be Something On and Guitars and Video Games.

P.S. Memo to Sub Pop: Please re-issue and remaster this album with bonus cuts (you did a great job with Diary and LP2.)

(4 stars) - Just short of a masterpiece
Sunny Day Real Estate
How It Feels to Be Something On; 1998
Sub Pop Records

My Rating: 8/10

When Sunny Day got back together and recorded a new record in 1998, one of the dreams of this young man was realized. How cool that it was a really great record at that. As Nate Mendel opted to continue Foo'ing around, the band is only at 75%, but they did manage to find a worthy match for Mendel's bass chops in hired-hand Jeff Palmer. As far as bookends go, the band continues to show a mastery for beginning and ending records, with the fabulous and dark "Pillars" setting the mood for the whole record and the blue-eyed mysticism of "Days Were Golden" closing things out. Although a few of the songs seem unworthy of the initials SDRE ("Two Promises", "The Shark's..."), the band continues to churn out emotionally-strident rock and roll with just enough experimental flourish to keep the indie set coming back. "Every Shining Time You Arrive" and "Guitar and Video Games" are particularly strong highlights, and "Roses in Water" and "The Prophet" deliver an eastern flavor that folds in well with the band's sound.

Tracks:

1. Pillars (5/5)
2. Roses in Water (4/5)
3. Every Shining Time You Arrive (5/5)
4. Two Promises (2/5)
5. 100 Million (3/5)
6. How It Feels To Be Something On (4/5)
7. The Prophet (4/5)
8. Guitar and Video Games (5/5)
9. The Shark's Own... (2/5)
10. Days Were Golden (5/5)

(5 stars) - A Happy Medium
If you ask any Sunny Day Real Estate fan which album it is they like most chances are you're going to get some very conflicting answers, depending on who it is you're talking to, and the reason for that is that the band undoubtedly made some very distinct creative decisions throughout their career. The camps seem to be split fiercely between those who feel that "Diary" and "LP2" were the groups glory days and those who feel that their last album, "The Rising Tide", was the sound of them hitting their absolute creative peak. Luckily for people like me however you will find a middle of the coin which seems to be where "How it Feels to Be Something On" resides.

I'm not sure what it is that happened to front man Jeremy Enigk over the course of the band's history, but I found myself disliking both of their bookend albums for the exact reasons that most people who slag on them do. I thought Diary was a bland, one dimensional sounding album that was way too...well, "emo", and that The Rising Tide was a cheesy mess of over wrought song writing and hyper produced prog rock. One was too immature and the other was far too "adult". Fortunately however "How it Feels" is, in my opinion at least, the perfect middle ground between those two camps. To me this is the sound of a band finding the perfect balance between their musical ideals and managing to avoid all the pitfalls of their creative extremes. I wish they could have stayed on this path for at least one or two more records, but it seems that you can't stop progress...regardless of whether you think it's good or it's bad.

In the end I think which album you end up liking most seems to depend heavily on your personality so the best thing to do is probably just listen to all 4 records and judge for yourself, but if I had to pick any one starting point this would probably be it...It's certainly possible you'll end up liking EVERYTHING you hear, but I can only speak for myself and say that because of it's balance this isn't just my favorite Sunny Day Real Estate album, but the ONLY Sunny Day Real Estate album. Listen and judge for yourself.

(5 stars) - The Best.
I'm not going to be wordy or long-winded here. This is quite possibly my favorite album of all time. It's not Diary, it's not LP2...it's better. It's a sterling work of originality, a timeless collection of amazing music.

Get it.

(5 stars) - Choked on society
Following a breakup in 1995, Sunny Day Real Estate reformed a few years later with a slightly modified line-up. From the opening moments of the album, it is very clear that they've done some growing up during their hiatus. That is not to say that their first two Lps were sophomoric or juvenile, but this band sounds weathered and wise, bold, and visionary.

The musical soundscapes in songs like Roses in Water, and The Prophet, are chilling and moving. There are moments when the band is weaving a dark tapestry of unsettled beauty, and Enigk simply calls out in kind, completing the picture wonderfully. Lyrics like "we were climbing forever, an infinite task. . ." perfectly describe the feel of this album; maybe a soundtrack for an epic journey, a photograph somewhere in the thick of things. And the moments when they arrive (like at the end of Every Shining Time You Arrive) are deeply satisfying.

How It Feels. . .is an album that keeps giving. Some may find Enigk's voice a bit jarring, or the dissonant guitar tones unsettling, but this also isn't an album for the general masses, and it doesn't purport to be so. But if this album makes sense to you, you will find yourself playing it again and again for years to come.

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