Jeremy Enigk - "World Waits"

Sunny Day Real Estate changed my life. When I heard How it Feels to be Something On in the Fall of 1999 I was opened up to a whole new world of music. No longer was music about chunky guitars, baggy pants, dirty dreadlocks and shell toes – ADIDAS-rock if you will. How it Feels opened my eyes to a whole new world of music, of melody, sensibility and real emotion, not faux-posturing and braggadocio. Sunny Day vocalist Jeremy Enigk was captivating without saying “Hey, look at me and the mic in my hands.”

That fateful afternoon spend sitting in a friends dorm room fully enthralled by “Pillars” and “Guitar and Video Games” led to the discovery of Diary, The Pink Album and Enigk’s eclectic solo record, Return of the Frog Queen and nothing, and I mean nothing, has been the same since.

Fast forward to 2006 and Enigk is back again, faced with a much different music industry. The indie music scene that Sunny Day Real Estate inspired has bubbled up from the underground to go mainstream and, quietly it seems, since retreated back. For a band to look to the progressive rock era of Yes, Rush, Genesis and the like, is no longer an oddity. The world has waited for World Waits – thankfully Enigk is back, to inspire anew.

Sunny Day’s history need not be recounted here. Neither should we get into the histories of short-lived, The Rising Tide-revisited project that was The Fire Theft, Dan Hoerner and Dashboard Confessional linkages or the Foo Fighters for that matter. All that matters here is Enigk, just Enigk, and his powerful, angelic and enthralling voice. Few vocalists posses the sheer range of Jeremy Enigk and as such, his voice really carries World Waits. Each song seems to have been constructed around a particular vocal line or idea, with textures added to accent whatever feeling the vocalist is attempting to convey.

Pipe organs bring chills to the skin before the band launches into a huge, Brit popping melody on the first cut and first single, “Been Here Before.” But Enigk hasn’t! That’s what makes this album so special. The songwriter here treads new water, churning up new melodies, textures and moods. Breathtaking moods. Inspired melodies.

After listening to “Cannons” I would like to proclaim that every other sensitive, self-denying “emo” singer/songwriter out there should just give up – you will never write a song this good Ben Gibbard.

“Wayward Love” has this very operatic feel – Pink Floyd or The Who – stuff along those lines. Symphonic drums, lightly plucked acoustic guitars pushed up against legato synths and Enigk doing his best Jon Anderson (Yes) impersonation here gives way to Flamenco-like guitars on “Dare A Smile.” “I am drained of all of my hope,” Enigk sings in over enunciated fashion. You need not be, sir. “I need something new to keep me going” he laments. World Waits is just that. “Can I run back to you?”

“City Tonight” seems out of place, simply because it pushes forward at a faster tempo than the rest of World Waits. Bursting and vibrant, “City Tonight” is in sharp contrast to the dreamy tug and turmoil of the albums other nine tracks.

There is a lot of Peter Gabriel on World Waits, definitely some Roger Daltry and a bit of Bono – great artists with even greater egos. There’s a lot of that grandiose sort of songwriting – self-indulgent in the most beautiful sense of the world.

Enigk receives credit for a large amount of the instrumentation of this record. And for the record, there are a host of “guest” artists, helping to guide Enigk’s vision, and some odd ones to boot: Andy Meyers, who designed the layout for both of Fall of Troy’s record, sings some vocals; Josh Meyers, who did orchestration for people like Mandy Moore and Unwed Sailor, does the same here; Joe Skyward, former bassist for The Posies pops up; Sub Pop chauntuese Rosie Thomas also guests. Man… now I feel like Matt Pinfield playing six degrees of seperation.

There is nothing more to say that hasn’t already been said. In closing, this record is simply fantastic.