Jeremy Enigk Return of the Frog Queen

Jeremy Enigk reissuing 'Return of the Frog Queen,' on living room tour

Sunny Day Real Estate frontman Jeremy Enigk released an excellent new solo album last year, Ghosts, and this year he’s releasing an expanded and remastered reissue of his classic 1996 solo debut, Return of the Frog Queen. It’s got five bonus tracks taken from Enigk’s 1996 live session on Seattle radio station The End, and it’s due out May 25 via Sub Pop. In case you’re unfamiliar with Return of the Frog Queen, Sub Pop offers three (very entertaining) reasons why the album holds up and is still important today:

1) At the time of its release in 1996, there was no other album like it.

2) In the 22 years between then and now, its marriage of seemingly opposing sensibilities—English folk and American punk; orchestral chamber pop and progressive rock; surreal, pastoral, fanciful lyrics that burn to express personal, emotional, and spiritual quandary—has become the blueprint for so much great music that a young listener can be forgiven for thinking that things were always just like that.

This isn’t to claim some kind of Velvet Underground/Big Star status for the album, but it is to say that you can draw a straight line between Frog Queen and elements of Elliott Smith, Belle & Sebastian, Rufus Wainwright, Destroyer, the Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, Sufjan Stevens, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Joanna Newsom, Bon Iver, and many, many other artists who have come to define the past two decades of indie music.

3) It’s getting harder to remember anything anymore.

But Return of the Frog Queen is worth remembering. Or discovering. And most definitely celebrating. Though you rarely see it turn up on lists of 50 Best Things of Whatever Year We Wish We Still Lived in Because the Present Is Such a Consummate Drag, the album was an indisputable innovation in the world of ‘90s indie rock, rewriting a litany of unwritten rules about sound, subject matter, and solo identity for lead singers of successful bands.

Jeremy is currently on a living room tour that wraps up at the end of the month with shows in NJ (4/23) and Brooklyn (4/24). Most remaining dates are sold out, except for the two North Carolina shows, DC, and Baltimore. Tickets for all available dates are here. Sub Pop promises, “Additional live dates will be announced soon.” Stay tuned!

Stream Return of the Frog Queen:

Return of the Frog Queen Expanded Tracklist
1. Abegail Anne
2. Return of the Frog Queen
3. Lewis Hollow
4. Lizard
5. Carnival
6. Call Me Steam
7. Explain
8. Shade and the Black Hat
9. Fallen Heart
10. Abegail Anne*
11. Return of the Frog Queen*
12. Lizard*
13. Carnival*
14. Explain*

*The End Sessions CD and
digital-only bonus tracks

Jeremy Enigk — 2018 Living Room Tour Dates
04/13/18 Pittsburgh, PA
04/15/18 Charlotte, NC (Waxhaw)
04/16/18 Winston-Salem, NC
04/17/18 Richmond, VA
04/19/18 Washington, DC
04/20/18 Baltimore, MD
04/21/18 Philadelphia, PA (Holland)
04/23/18 Haddon Heights, NJ
04/24/18 Brooklyn, NY