Jeremy Bear And The Frog Queen
Before I get on with my usual reviews of new records, something caught my attention. The other night on The Daily Show, Foo Fighters performed 2 songs from their new album. Now, most people would see this and say one of two things: 1) Hey, a new Foo Fighters album? Awesome! Or 2) Foo Fighters? Aren’t those guys dead yet? Then theres the crowd of people that wonder something else entirely: Nate Mendel’s still with Foo Fighters? I wonder what the other half of his former bands(Sunny Day Real Estate, The Fire Theft) are doing. And what are they doing anyway? More specifically, what has Jeremy Enigk been up to?
When Jeremy Enigk first broke away from Sunny Day Real Estate, his first record was not only different than his former band, it was nearly indistinguishable from it. Apparently stepping away from his emo-pioneering roots was easier than one might have thought. Return Of The Frog Queen was truly a record of creative, original and beautiful songs that are as timeless as the imagery described therein.
Then for years there was nothing. Sure SDRE got back together and made a couple of records without Nate Mendel, but a few years later 3/4 of SDRE formed The Fire Theft with Nate Mendel. But this isn’t about those bands. The same year, Jeremy Enigk also penned some of the soundtrack for Kevin Spacey’s The United States Of Leland along with Frank Black. Being that these were the first original songs from him in 7 years, it might has well have been his 2nd solo record. The songs were just as touching as his earlier works, but they differed slightly in their execution. It turns out these were just the precursor to his most promising record that would come out 3 years later.
World Waits was more reminiscent of the work hes done with The Fire Theft, but there are still a lot of noticeable differences. As with his first record, the orchestra is an ever-present force behind most of the songs, but not in the same way as before. In fact, you have to actually listen closely to notice them sometimes because the instruments seamlessly blend together better on this record. More distinctive to his earlier work are his deeper-sung vocals, although his excellent falsetto is still around making all the songs as beautiful as they can possibly be. Personally, I would’ve bought this for his vocals alone… they’re just that good. Anyone whos familiar with his work knows that he has one of the most distinctive voices in rock. In this instance, the greatest obstacle Enigk faced was living up to the standards he had already set with his previous work.
The Missing Link was basically 4 new tracks and 5 songs from World Waits done slightly differently. The redone tracks aren’t as good as the originals, so lets focus on the new ones for now. The first track is the best song on the record by far. The others sort of fall short of its lead-in. Not to say that they aren’t good, they just weren’t as jaw-droppingly perfect as the first one was. I only hoped that his next record wouldn’t let me down like this one did.
Remember how I said that I hoped that his next record wouldn’t let me down like Missing Link kinda did? Well, it turns out that OK Bear was merely… Ok. Though I’m all for musicians telling me how their record will sound ahead of time, I really wish this hadn’t been one of them. It sounded like Jeremy Enigk got Toad The Wet Sprocket to be his backing band and made a record. And believe me, this is coming from a guy whose favorite band in the mid-90s was indeed, Toad The Wet Sprocket. So why then wasn’t I impressed? Well for starters, Toad The Wet Sprocket haven’t been relevant since 1998 and OK Bear came out in… lets see here… ah yes, 2000 and fucking 9.
So what is Jeremy Enigk doing lately? Earlier this year he informally announced that he was ‘hard at work on a new album’ and to ‘stay tuned’. So the real question is, which version of himself will show up on this record? Someone old, or someone completely new? Someone borrowed or someone blue? Perhaps he will marry 2 sounds together that will inevitably redefine music as we know it again. Once they’ve coupled will they divorce him or live happily… ok, I’ll stop with the fucking marriage cliches. In any case, we’re probably looking at a year before he inevitably puts it out. That said, why did I even bring this up? That deserves a thoughtful answer…