Sunny Day Real Estate is the second studio album by American rock band Sunny Day Real Estate. The band's label, Sub Pop, distributed the album under the title LP2. Due to its simple pink cover, the album is often referred to as "The Pink Album". It was the band's final release to feature founding bassist Nate Mendel until their single "Lipton Witch", released in 2014 after their third breakup.
| Sunny Day Real Estate | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 7, 1995 | |||
| Recorded | 1993–1995 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 37:13 | |||
| Label | Sub Pop | |||
| Producer | Brad Wood | |||
| Sunny Day Real Estate chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [1] |
| Drowned in Sound | 6/10[2] |
| Pitchfork Media | 7.8/10[3] |
| Sputnikmusic | 4.0/5[4] |
The album was remastered and reissued in 2009, with bonus tracks and newly written liner notes.[5] The bonus tracks are "Spade and Parade" (originally a B-side of the song "Friday") and "Bucket of Chicken" (released as a B-side to the song "How It Feels to be Something On").[6]
Overview
editThe album is entirely covered in pink, with the band's name across the cover in small type, and doesn't include any liner notes. The cover's simple design and nickname is a reference to The Beatles' eponymous 1968 double album, known as "The White Album". This album was released in November 1995, several months after the band's first break-up.
"8" and "Friday" were re-recorded for the album. Both songs had been recorded and released previously on 7-inch singles. The final track, "Rodeo Jones", was recorded during the sessions for the previous album, Diary, and was previously released as a b-side on the "In Circles" promo single. In addition, "8" is featured on the Batman Forever soundtrack.
In November 1995, Sub Pop released the band's second album, bearing only the label Sunny Day Real Estate. The album was released without cover art or liner notes, and was distributed by Sub Pop as LP2. It has also occasionally been referred to as "The Pink Album", a reference to its solid pink cover. When Sub Pop contacted the band for artwork for the release, the band had nothing to offer, so Goldsmith suggested that they "make it pink". The album included the songs recorded during the brief sessions, as well as tracks such as "Rodeo Jones" that were recorded during the sessions for Diary.
Enigk confessed in an interview in December 2008 that because the band had already broken up during the recording of LP2, he and Hoerner never sat down to complete the lyrics; "We broke up and we just felt like we were done. We put no energy into the artwork or into anything. On a lot of songs, there aren’t lyrics! In a lot of cases, we never sat down to write them, because we just wanted to get it out of the way as fast as possible. So I just sang a lot of gibberish, which makes it really quirky. My favorite is the Japanese translations".[7]
"Red Elephant" was ranked at number 44 on Spin's "The 95 Best Alternative Rock Songs of 1995" list.[8]
Track listing
edit| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Friday" | 2:29 |
| 2. | "Theo B" | 3:05 |
| 3. | "Red Elephant" | 3:19 |
| 4. | "5/4" | 3:33 |
| 5. | "Waffle" | 4:25 |
| 6. | "8" | 5:28 |
| 7. | "Iscarabaid" | 4:47 |
| 8. | "J'Nuh" | 4:52 |
| 9. | "Rodeo Jones" | 5:09 |
| Total length: | 37:13 | |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 10. | "Spade and Parade" | 4:28 |
| 11. | "Bucket of Chicken" | 5:30 |
| Total length: | 47:11 | |
Demos
editThe band recorded demos for all the songs on the album except for "Rodeo Jones", which had already been demoed and recorded at the Diary sessions. "The Crow" was later re-recorded as "Bucket Of Chicken" and released as a b-side to the song "How It Feels To Be Something On" in 1998. Only one tape from those sessions has surfaced. The demos for "J'nuh" and "Iscarabaid" are instrumental.[9] The track list is as follows:
- "Theo B"
- "5/4"
- "Red Elephant"
- "Friday"
- "Waffle"
- "8"
- "J'nuh"
- "Iscarabaid"
- "The Crow"
Personnel
edit- Jeremy Enigk – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards
- Dan Hoerner – lead guitar, backing vocals
- Nate Mendel – bass guitar
- William Goldsmith – drums, percussion
Charts
edit| Chart (1995) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US Heatseekers (Billboard)[10] | 25 |
References
edit- ^ "LP2 Review by Stanton Swihart". AllMusic. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
- ^ "Sunny Day Real Estate Diary and LP2 (reissues)". Drowned in Sound. Archived from the original on 16 August 2023. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
- ^ "Sunny Day Real Estate LP2". Pitchfork. 3 September 2009. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
- ^ "Sunny Day Real Estate Sunny Day Real Estate". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
- ^ "Sub Pop Records". Subpop.com. Archived from the original on 2011-08-06. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
- ^ Sub Pop LP2 re-release details
- ^ [1] Archived October 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ D.W. (August 6, 2015). "The 95 Best Alternative Rock Songs of 1995". Spin. p. 3. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
- ^ "enigk.com". enigk.com. Retrieved 2012-03-11.
- ^ "Billboard". 25 November 1995.