Comments on: The Over/Under: Sunny Day Real Estate

By: nate

nate — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:16:59 +0000

The #1 song I think that got overlooked way too much was ‘Roses in Water.’ that song is truly amazing. The melody and the rhythm are just so odd, it’s great!

By: Jesse

Jesse — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:54:23 +0000

Love the comment about Everlong being a SDRE song. I knew I liked that song more than the typical Foo Fighters fare for some reason. As for all this sentimental blah blah blah… being a SDRE fan still… just makes me feel old. Most of the kids into “emo” or indie stuff these days can’t seem to appreciate SDRE any more than anyone could back in the day. As a band they are mostly just underrated. Blaming SDRE for Jimmy Eat World is treasonous. Jeremy’s “Lewis Hollow” from Return of the Frog Queen was somehow replaced by “Abegail Anne”? Don’t agree.

By: theo

theo — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:17:29 +0000

cool. i can still remember listening to them on cassette tape in my buddy’s volkswagon on my first-ever roadtrip. it was the line you wrote “…while this is probably just the latter-day hype machine assigning a retrospective value to something that wasn’t nearly as High Concept back when it was created (emo existed, both as a term and as a style deep within the punk underground, before Sunny Day existed),” that sounded like you came to sunny day after their first incarnation. i can remember emo coming straight out of the hard core movement and the small circle of friends that listened to emo-core as it was dubbed back then. as you said, emo was certainly around before sunny day (rites of spring, indian summer, eucalyptus…), but i don’t think that much has been added to the importance of ‘diary’ due to any amount of retrospect or hype-machines. those of us listening to hard core and emo core recognized right away what a special album ‘diary’ was…whether on cassette tape or no. (and: the early nineties in seattle must have been fun. nice.)

By: Corey duBrowa

Corey duBrowa — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:58:53 +0000

Theo — I actually saw SDRE in Seattle almost right at the very beginning (a couple of times)… which probably would have been 93 now that I think about it.

By: theo

theo — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:27:24 +0000

i’m thinking this guy obviously didn’t listen to sunny day in 1993. no offense, corey.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:57:37 +0000

Where is “Faces In Disguise” in the underrated section? Great song, great vocals. LOVE IT!

By: soundrotation

soundrotation — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 01:24:04 +0000

Totally on board with this one. The Rising Tide and Fire Theft albums are so powerful and moving. Give them another few listens if you’re a SDRE fan who clings too tightly to the debut…

By: Bruce

Bruce — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:19:02 +0000

I’m not sure I can get behind calling “Seven” or “In Circles” overrated, but really, they’re about the only SDRE songs rated enough to do so. As much as I love Return of the Frog Queen, I would’ve loved to have seen another How it Feels to Be Something On track replace “Abigail Anne” in the underrated column. In my opinion, it’s Sunny Day’s finest hour and rarely gets it’s due. “Pillars” in particular is subtle, nuanced and as huge as any song they’ve ever put together, but in a completely different way than the big songs on Diary. How it Feels… was the record where they had found a way to incorporate prog influences while still retaining their identity as a band and stands as the only “reunion” album I can remember where the promise of members coming back together and making a new statement incorporating everything they’ve learned since the original breakup was actually fulfilled.