Songfacts®:

• As grunge was maturing in 1994 it became clear that many of its musicians were deeply troubled souls. Mark Lanegan encapsulates the ennui pretty well in this song when he sings:
  
  Sunrise
  Should've covered up my eyes
  Beauty wasted on me
  
  Living in the Pacific Northwest, Lanegan didn't have to worry much about sunshine. But the idea behind the song - a feeling of wanderlust and wondering if anything will make you happy - was true to life for him and many of his contemporaries. Lanegan was good friends with Kurt Cobain, who died by suicide soon after this song was released. Lanegan passed away in 2022 at 57 from undisclosed causes.
• Mark Lanegan is best known as the lead singer in Screaming Trees, but he had a robust solo career as well. "Sunrise" is from his second solo album, Whiskey For The Holy Ghost, released while the Trees were still extant and peaking in popularity. The group broke up in 2000 after performing at the opening of the Experience Music Project in Seattle.
• The other singer on this track is Sally Barry, who was friends with Lanegan. "He just threw me into a booth and we were working with John Agnello – who was a princely person, and also an amazing producer and engineer," she said in the book Lanegan. "It was just very casual, no direction, no stress, no nothing. And that's why I ended up hanging out for a lot of those sessions, because it was just really fun. It was just a great place to be. And to watch Mark working was really nice. He was insecure a lot of the time – about his vocals. He would come out and be like, 'Is that OK?' It was like, 'Dude... stop. This is great.'"