The alternative rock genre holds a special place in my heart. But while I am loving the current scene spearheaded by bands like The Strokes, there’s a certain era of this genre’s storied history that shines the brightest: 90s alt-rock. An assortment of brooding lyrics, distorted guitars and a cacophony of rigid noise all drenched in melancholia define the sound of this class of artists.
Yet within this scene, there is a niche subgroup that explores laid-back and lyrical ballad-infused sounds while nevertheless maintaining hints of grunge through distortion and moody tones. The bands that occupy this special class of 90s alt-rock— think Mazzy Star’s So Tonight That I Might See and Slowdive’s Souvlaki— knew how to blend lyrical and dreamy folk melodies with the raw, dirty sounds of their grunge predecessors into something truly magical. It’s bands like these that paved the way for later dream pop and dark folk acts like California-based singer/songwriter Emily Jane White.
The Diamond Star Halos’ 2003 privately released, self-titled album could easily be placed within this camp. The Diamond Star Halos is the band under which White first collaborated as a songwriter. White re-released The Diamond Star Halos on Bandcamp on August 7, giving listeners a unique chance to revel in their nostalgia and to travel back to the height of American alt-rock. The album’s fourth song “To The Sea” is a turbulent musing on escape that is quintessentially laid-back alt.
The track opens with an ominous repeated question, in a manner that hardly seems hypothetical.
The whole world is caving in on you
What are you gonna do?
There are two possible responses to a dilemma of this manner: fight or flight. The Diamond Star Halos choose the latter, going on a journey that takes them to the train station, the river, and ultimately, as the song’s title suggests, to the sea. However, unlike a typical trip that views the sea as something to cross to get to a final destination, in this track it is the endpoint. Are The Diamond Star Halos drowning in this sea, drifting indefinitely, or hoping they’ll just end up someplace better? I think this ambiguity only adds to the melancholic charms of this track.
However, the classic dejected tone of late 90s alt that’s accomplished in “To the Sea” through sluggish acoustic guitars, heavy percussion, and White’s raw vocals changes pace about halfway through the song, making listeners feel as if we are drifting in a slow-moving yet nonetheless torrential flood. It is in this ride that we get a glimpse into what may be pushing White to escape.
Thunder and lightning,
heat of the storm,
that’s where I was born
Here White makes clear the fact that this life-induced claustrophobia isn’t a new feeling for her. Being caught in the tumultuous and harrowing eye of the storm is her norm and trying to outrun its downpour is a repeated phenomenon. In this vein, it seems as though having her origins in chaos means that these qualities are inherent to her being— that even as she tries to run from the chaos it will always be a part of her in some capacity. Or in other words, she’s caught in repeated futile attempts to outrun herself.
By analyzing “To the Sea” in the context of White’s later works, it becomes apparent that her ability to write raw and honest takes about the human condition was a skill present from the start. White’s latest release, Immanent Fire, exudes an ethereal darkness reminiscent of that which “To the Sea” cultivates while leaning more into the lyrical folk genre than The Diamond Star Halos did. (Similarly to how Mazzy Star shed their 90s distortion in favor of more lyrical, dream-pop ballads as they progressed to 2013’s Seasons of Your Day). Thus, it feels like a treat to see the roots that grounded White’s later endeavors with the re-release of tracks like “To the Sea.” And as an alternative rock connoisseur, getting more exposure to this 90s-esque alt sound is forever welcomed.
