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Jeremy Enigk
Jeremy Enigk
OK Bear
(Lewis Hollow, 2009)
Jeremy Enigk may have written my favorite song of all time, “Guitar and Video Games.” Like most fanboys, I prefer Enigk’s old stuff to his new stuff. This drop-off is easier to illustrate with the two baffling opening titles from the solo album that officially marks as much work with Sunny Day Real Estate as not: “Mind Idea” and “Late of Camera.” But we’ve let him get away with this before. His most famous group was full of mystery, from once refusing to tour California and painting a whole album pink, to songs about doubles tennis and headless teddy bears. The bombastic delivery could send one on spiritual quests for the ears, with tricky basslines and unexpected codas and whatever was ultimately necessary to thrust the whole of my beliefs into his cryptic tunes.
OK Bear lacks Enigk’s sophisticated melodicism and vocal acrobatics, making any pretensions on his part a grievance to forgive at this point. “Mind Idea” turns out to be attached to a pulsating piano figure with strung-together phrases for skewed adornment: “Whispering loud and clear / The secret unsafe / Highway sprawl / The nations die.” His bored delivery doesn’t help. Rather than singing or screaming the tune, Enigk gargles the vocals like some backwashed half-spawn of Syd Barrett. In 1993, his moan was something to hang onto. Here, it’s harder to discern the point of passion in the songwriting, which is rather one-place-to-the-next. “Late of Camera” follows in the same vein, with notes that hang in the air rather than sink down on a beat, all textural wash with no musical target. And it sounds like it’s got circa-’67 Maureen Tucker on drums, which is a terrible match for Enigk. The inexplicably named “Sandwich Time” has horns in the breakdown and hints at a belated sense of humor, but still revolves around a tired plea to “atone your heart.”
The first track with a little motion to it is “April Storm”, a folksy ballad about “the setting sun” and “valleys below” that one could imagine Sheryl Crow singing, but with more verve, or sex even. “Storm” may be strained and limpid, but it’s not tuneless, and it’s a relative highlight. One deflated promise is “Life’s Too Short”, which actually rocks somewhat, except it’s marred by a screech that he’s always threatened to parody, but never exactly took a leap off that ledge until now. Just so you know, it’s a long way down.
It should be pointed out that Enigk’s written at least two songs in his solo career as spectacular as any of his Sunny Day work. 1996’s blushing, beautiful “Explain” fulfilled his orchestral ambitions so well that the remainder of his pretty good debut Return of the Frog Queen may as well have been bonus tracks. And, 10 years later, he doled out a funereal piano portrait called “World Waits” that could overtake any Coldplay killer. In between the two, his only record with the Fire Theft (Sunny Day minus perpetual weirdo/guitar genius Dan Hoerner) wielded a handful of great songs as well (“Chain”, “It’s Over”, “Heaven”), even if they were by far his cheesiest up to that point.
It’s easy to believe the reclusive Enigk has a difficult time putting his thoughts together. The tepid OK Bear suffers from being both too muddled and too facile, a dichotomy exemplified by the incoherent mess of “Late of Camera” followed immediately by the adult-contemporary soft-rock of “April Storm.” But I only used to buy his tripe about “dreams” or being “carried across the sun” because volcanic melodies were attached. The uncharacteristically upbeat “Restart” is a delight, and the sneering one-two of “In a Look” and “Same Side Imaginary” somewhat makes up for “Life’s Too Short”, but a nutty songwriter going through the motions of mostly soggy, precious ballads is a sad deal for everyone.
Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]
Tags: Jeremy Enigk, OK Bear, Lewis Hollow, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Fire Theft
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4 Comments
All points to the obvious: Dan Hoerner wrote most of the Sunny Day stuff that people obsess over. Jeremy has said often in interviews that he has trouble with lyrics, and that, though he sang them in SD, he didn’t always pen them.
In defense of this record, though I agree it lacks much: all these tunes sound much better acoustic, all Enigk, without the backing band who wrote all their parts (you can find various versions of Engik doing them solo on youtube). His band in Spain changed his songs and made them their own, and he gave them the ok. Had Jeremy recorded an acoustic record on his own, like he’d initially planned, we’d have a very different (better) impression of these songs, more like ROTFQ.
You guys are on crack. This album is so effing good.
Ok… first off this record’s not as good as Frog Queen… Duh. It’s still quite good. I think it equals World Waits. BTW I’ve been a fan since 95 and I think Jeremy is just as interesting and engaging as ever. Do you really want him to write the same style/feel as 93-98? Seems like the reviewer’s taste would grow and develop over time. I know mine has. I think the instrumentation on this record is cool… the songs actually benefit from some new blood. Overall I give this 3.75 stars out of 5.
Tepid and bored are good words for describing this review…I wouldn’t use them to describe OK Bear. Late of Camera is far, FAR from a mess of any sort. That you don’t get/don’t enjoy it, well…meh. No interest in hearing Enigk recreate something already created over and over again. This is new, and great…and you guys might actually be on crack.