Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York was released on CD after Kurt Cobain’s death. I remember someone writing at the time that after the unexpected shotgun blast proved the extent of Cobain’s depression, every song now sounded like a suicide note. Around two years after Cobain ended it all, another musician from my college radio days killed himself. He was far less prominent–no cottage industry of mournful t-shirts sprung up around his loss–but to me he was even more important.

Jim Ellison was the lead singer and chief songwriter for the band Material Issue. Their albums were like gifts from power pop heaven, filled with blazing guitar rockers and stunning, soaring ballads. By the time the radio station received our CD copy of their sophomore effort Destination Universe, we had just about worn out the vinyl copy of their debut. I don’t remember if it came out in the summer, but it was surely a summer album, filled with the sort of songs that sounded best, to borrow from some of Ellison’s lyrics, with the radio up and the windows down.

All those songs still sound good, but there’s a sadness there, too. Like Cobain’s music, it’s sometimes hard to listen to without hearing all the indicators that the world held too much pain for the songwriter to bear. Like many a sterling pop craftsman, Ellison excelled at songs about heartbreak and unrequited longing. His lyrics often sounded like lengthy messages left on answering machines, the caller drawing out his litany of tender regret in the hopes that the person on the other end will pick up the receiver and prove that she’s home after all. That’s compounded by Ellison’s exquisite talent for writing ballads. While the band could be boisterous and strident, especially live, there was a piercing emotional quality to their slower songs, those stretches when Ellison turned down the guitars a little bit. Something like “Valerie Loves Me” or “What Girls Want” was perfect listening under the noon sun. Material Issue had even better songs for listening to in the heart of the lonely night.

Material Issue, “Don’t You Think I Know”

(Disclaimer: Listen, I’m as dismayed and stunned as anyone that any of the Material Issue records are out of print, but Destination Universe certainly looks unavailable to me. You can get a few of the songs from the record on a middling hits collection. More importantly, the band’s stellar debut is still being pressed an offered for sale. As usual, if anyone with due authority to do so asks me to remove this song from this chunk of Interweb realty, I’ll gladly comply.)