Ah, fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Another day in the office, another death in the office. I don't want this blog to turn into obituary central, but pretty much ever since it's beginning I planned to post something from Duncan Sheik. And now I kind of have to do it, like, right now, because Sheik just died. C'mon, people, I'm getting as sick of writing obits as maybe you get of reading them. I don't have a huge emotional link to Mr. Sheik, I just admired his sleek, smart pop music. I'll just say that 56 is no age to die on people, but oh well, who's asking me. Earlier this month I had the worst first day of the worst new school year ever, when I learned before my first course that a colleague in the department had died the week before. Nice guy, not a particularly close friend, or anything, more like a friendly work acquaintance, but his death shook me a lot. Forty fuckin' years old, healthy lifestyle, keels over and dies of a fuckin' heart attack. Leaves a wife and kids of six and three years old. As I said above, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. If you felt that ol' OBG was a little morose in some of his recent write-ups, then you're right on the money, and though I hadn't kept taps on Sheik - who enjoyed a successful career on Broadway in the last two decades - this isn't gonna brighten my mood. Not one bit. As noted philosopher Billie Joe Armstrong said, wake me up when September ends.
So, Duncan Sheik. His five minutes of stardom in 1997, when "Barely Breathing" ruled the airwaves, at least for a while, and the ensuing short career as a teen heartthrob completely passed me by, much as Sheik did completely in my corner of the world. But the name sounded enough of a bell almost a decade later, when I fished his 2002 album Daylight out of a bargain bin. What a great catch that was. Daylight is a top notch album for about two thirds before it peters out a bit at the end. But before Sheik adds little pop pearl to little pop pearl as if forging a necklace of pop perfection. Unsurprisingly, All Of These Things - The Music Of Duncan Sheik draws heavily upon Daylight, with a third of its 18-track line-up coming from that album, and I could have still easily added at least one other song.
Sheik called Daylight "the Trojan Horse of pop", where the pop sheen and catchy melodies hide some unexpectedly deep or subversive - for a mainstream pop record - lyrics, but it was also a bit of a last hurray and goodbye to the world of pop. Sheik had tasted life as a pop star, decided he didn't really like it, and once his contract with Atlantic was up after Daylight, he more or less willingly walked away from pop stardom. Having other people on stage sing his songs was perfectly fine, so around the time of the release of Daylight, he had started to work on musical theater, and would spend the next two decades plus writing for Broadway, winning Grammies and Tonies along the way, not that he much - cared about that. From time to time he would issue another album for the faithful, without caring about sales or promotion. He was happy plying his trade as a relatively anonymous contributor, with his pop career further and further retreating in the back mirror.
And yet, that pop career - short as it was - was full of wonderful moments. And eighteen of these are collected in All Of These Things - The Music Of Duncan Sheik, which will either introduce you to this fabulous artist, or bring back happy memories otherwise.
Godspeed, Duncan. Hopefully Sheik's Buddhist's faith brought him some peace in the knowledge that he will return in another life. His religious beliefs, though never brought out particularly openly, permeats the sentiments of facing mortality in the comp's closer "Hymn", so I'll leave you with a couple of those lines.
And she asks me
how many sunrises
will we watch from start to finish
how many will we witness?
And my answers
are only ever surmises
maybe a handful of times
...before the next life.
All Of These Things...Well Worth Hearing
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