At first, I wasn’t a huge fan of the film ‘The United States of Leland‘ – much like I didn’t immediately take to Sunny Day Real Estate, the emo band Jeremy Enigk fronted until he later became an eponymous Lennon-esque bard.
Sunny Day Real Estate arrived via Sub Pop Records around 1993 and enjoyed rather viral adoration amongst the post-grunge crowd who were still playing their Mudhoney and Smashing Pumpkins tapes while acts like Enigma and Ace of Base ruled the pop charts.
In addition to being credited with spawning the entire “emo” genre (influencing all of the sound-alike acts that were active in the mid-’90s), SDRE enjoyed the dubious honor of appearing on the soundtrack to Batman Forever .
My resistance to their debut 
‘Diary’ was folly, since album #2 (“the Pink album“) struck me instantly as some mammoth, visionary epic that expanded the expressive palette previously conjured with simple rock instrumentation.
‘Diary’ was folly, since album #2 (“the Pink album“) struck me instantly as some mammoth, visionary epic that expanded the expressive palette previously conjured with simple rock instrumentation. Once a mewling Moby look-alike with a white t-shirt and low-slung guitar, Enigk’s voice had transformed into an unusual blend of vulnerability and sarcasm, delivered with brawny tone and deliberate mania. 
With the balance of his solo career, the later efforts by Sunny Day Real Estate had apparently met mixed response amongst fans (I think they’re great, esp. ‘Rising Tide’) and his stint with The Fire Theft seems to have made about as much impact as…well, Tin Machine maybe.
But, these ‘Leland’ songs are astounding…and as an Enigk fan you really do need to have these in regular rotation.
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