How It Feels to Be Something On Sunny Day Real Estate Artist

The cryptically titled {|How It Feels to Be Something On|} was the first fruit of {|Sunny Day Real Estate|}'s reunion, and it simultaneously smoothed out their sound while shifting it into something altogether more ambitious. Always somewhat arty and... Read more

The cryptically titled {|How It Feels to Be Something On|} was the first fruit of {|Sunny Day Real Estate|}'s reunion, and it simultaneously smoothed out their sound while shifting it into something altogether more ambitious. Always somewhat arty and challenging to begin with, {|SDRE|} flirts with out-and-out {|prog rock|} here, cleaning up the production to reveal the contrasting layers in their ever more intricate arrangements. There's a droning, almost Middle Eastern feel to some of the songs, pointing up {|Jeremy Enigk|}'s newfound taste for spiritual mysticism (though the mantra-like chanting on {|The Prophet|} comes off a little awkwardly). {|Enigk|} has matured greatly as a vocalist, applying lessons learned from his solo project; gone is the strangled roar he frequently used on {|Diary|}, but even while confirming his softer bent, he's reined in the swooning, bordering-on-fey excess of {|LP2|}. Similarly, the band's musicianship keeps getting sharper, handling the twisting chord progressions with an easy grace that keeps the songs flowing smoothly into one another. Almost too smoothly, in fact -- if the album has a flaw, it's that the climactic peaks don't seem to scale quite the same heights as on the band's other albums. That's a minor complaint, to be sure, but perhaps that's why {|How It Feels to Be Something On|} can feel at times like a dry run for the magnificently perfected {|The Rising Tide|}, where {|Enigk|}'s piercing falsetto really hits its stride and where the band's songwriting fulfills their every anthemic ambition. But that's only in hindsight; taken on its own terms, {|How It Feels to Be Something On|} is a remarkable step forward from a band that seemed destined to leave its full potential untapped. ~ Steve Huey Less