Mid-Week Music: Jeremy Enigk - “Explain”
I bought this album after reading an article about the recording of it in my favorite magazine, Tape Op, in the late 1990s. I was intrigued by the description of the sound. As John Vanderslice, the author of the article (actually an interview with Greg Williamson, the engineer) says:
..then the voice, distressed beyond belief (I could almost see the PZM taped to the basement wall), floating along like some spawn of Syd Barret. Enigk's voice follows its own harmonic logic. He's one of the few singers whose melody lines surprise and puzzle me. And this is before the 41-piece orchestra comes in…
Digging this out 20 years later, it’s still so raw and gorgeous.
If I could move the weight of everything
Blind the skies and change the tomic role
Here I am and not the answers
Only scars can show this time
I'm still wandering round your door
How can I explain dear
You've been gone for some time
But I still believe you'll be here
Oh no, again
I never sought out anything more by Enigk at the time. I was probably afraid that I would be disappointed by anything else. But now as I’m writing this, I realize I should make that effort.
Love,
David
