Let’s Keep The Secret

Sunny Day Real Estate “Lipton Witch”

It’s strange to think that Sunny Day Real Estate reunited after nearly a decade, wrote and recorded “Lipton Witch,” and then completely lost the will to carry on. I mean, I get it on an interpersonal level, but artistically… surely they noticed that this was one of the very best songs they’d ever done together, right? “Lipton Witch” has an urgent, explosive sound that the band largely abandoned after Diary in favor of knottier compositions or more pensive material. The song is all forward momentum and catharsis, with Jeremy Enigk singing vague, conspiratorial lyrics in his usual tortured rasp, but sounding more triumphant than defeated. If this is truly the end of the band, “Lipton Witch” works well as a final statement: Musically, it brings them full circle, and tonally, it sounds like a happy ending. Or, you know, as happy as they’re going to get.