FEATURE:
Their Finest Hour
The Sundays’ Reading, Writing and Arithmetic at Thirty
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I was going to write another article…
IN THIS PHOTO: The Sundays in 1990
but I noticed The Sundays’ debut album, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, is thirty today (15th January). This is an album I have been aware of since it was released. At the time, I was only six, but I remember songs such as Here’s Where the Story Ends and Can’t Be Sure being played on the radio. Of course, at the time, I was a little naïve – or just too young to understand – what the songs were about. I was struck by the sweetness and unusual tones of Harriet Wheeler’s voice and the sophistication of the music – Wheeler and David Gavurin wrote all the songs on The Sundays’ debut album. The Sundays were/are David Gavurin, Harriet Wheeler, Patrick Hannan and Paul Brindley and, alongside Ray Shulman, they produced this quiet masterpiece. I recently wrote a piece about the tracks of 1990 and, as you can see, people like Madonna and Sonic Youth were defining the scene. That said, bands like Everything But the Girl, Cocteau Twins and The La’s were providing something alternative; a catchiness and strength that different to everything else out there; It is hard to articulate, but I think there was this very interesting wave of British Indie/Jangle Pop that emerged at the start of the 1990s. Whilst the decade would see some true works of genius released, I think The Sundays’ debut should be considered among the very best. Yes, it does not shout as loud as Nirvana’s Nevermind (1991) or has the same influence as, say, Radiohead’s OK Computer (1997), but I think The Sundays influenced a lot of bands – and they still influence artists today.
One of the things I love about Reading, Writing and Arithmetic is the mix of simplicity and sophistication. In terms of personnel, it is just these five people: Harriet Wheeler – vocals; David Gavurin – guitar; Paul Brindley – bass; Patrick Hannan – drums; Lindsay Jamieson – tambourine. The tracks might seem breezy and light on the surface, yet they are deep and full of nuance. I am listening back to tracks I heard first thirty years ago and discovering new things. Despite the fact Here’s Where the Story Ends is The Sundays’ biggest hit, it was never released as a single in the U.K. It reached number thirty-six in John Peel’s Festive Fifty in 1990, and it topped the U.S. Modern Rock Tracks chart. Reviews were positive for the song, and many artists have covered the track – including Tin Tin Out in 1998. Lots of great albums are turning thirty this year and, as it is only January, it might be a while before we see the next big anniversary. The Sundays’ Reading, Writing and Arithmetic definitely warrants investigation. I will bring in a review later on but, before then, a couple of articles that salute The Sundays’ mighty debut. In this XS Noize article from 2015, they look at the start of The Sundays and why Reading, Writing and Arithmetic resonated:
“The Sundays came into existence when Harriet Wheeler and David Gavurin met and started to date while attending Bristol University. They were messing about with songwriting and prose when the idea of a band first became a possibility. The band would eventually compose Harriet on vocals and David as guitarist with Paul Brindley on bass and Patrick Hannan on drums. Things moved rapidly for The Sundays, the band quickly went from fiddling around making demos to being signed by Rough Trade after a bit of a bidding war. The quickness with which they were signed might not have served them as well as many would think, as Gavurin observed,” A lot of bands who get signed, have been playing for years and have 30 songs for the first album… but we didn’t have enough songs for our first album, let alone a second, we could not write to a deadline.
You can’t force a whole amount of quality songs quickly.” They were almost accidental musicians. The band, fortunately, hit the sweet spot of arriving at a time when a new decade was dawning and suddenly from the ruins of the last musical decade The Sundays emerged and were in parts The Smiths and the Cocteau Twins all in one. The band has the appeal of instant breezy hooks, delicate swirling rhythms and Harriet’s amazing vocals.
Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic was a perfect meditation on post-grad life when the world is your oyster and you either go into plastics like the adults suggest or start a rock band. The Sundays were able to capture the feeling of being totally confident you would never make the same mistakes as the adults and that surely the life you had dreamed of was just around the corner. The disc kicked off with Skin and Bone starting off like someone dropped a sonic bomb. The song then proffered the very British ethos of not getting too big for your britches, “…actually oh well there’s something I’ve found it’s true we are just flesh and bone.” The song breaks forth with the celestial sound of Harriet’s voice over an all so pleasing guitar. Those first vocals were all you needed to indicate you were in for something special.
Alas, The Sundays would only release three albums with Reading Writing and Arithmetic being the strongest commercial performer. Hobbled by their record company Rough Trade’s financial troubles and the commitment to managing themselves may have undercut the band. The Sundays would go on to release Blind in 1992, with the singles Goodbye and the scintillating cover of the Rolling Stone’s Wild Horses, the album would go to 15 on the UK charts. Their last recording Static and Silence would yield Monochrome and Summertime with longtime fan producer Nigel Godrich aiding on the song She. Blind would also reach into the UK top 15. Harriet and Matthew would eventually marry and have two children. They decided to put the band on hiatus to raise their family, but they are still writing, so who knows what the future holds. Hope springs eternal.
The Sundays enduring influence was that they were the first key dive circuit band to break out in their era. They were a response to the Stone Roses and Happy Monday’s invasion. Their success provided a platform for many other thrilling talents to be allowed a look in on the mainstream charts. Those opportunities in all likelihood would not have happened without The Sunday’s success. Their shimmering lyrical economy and sonic transparency make them after all these years a band to sonically enjoy and treasure”.
I do think Reading, Writing and Arithmetic gets overlooked because, not only did it arrive at the very start of the 1990s; the decade is synonymous with brilliance and staggering albums. It is obvious The Sundays have opened the door for many artists, yet there is something unique about their music that cannot be replicated. If you have a moment today, go and stream the album – it is at the bottom of this feature. Reading, Writing and Arithmetic is one of those albums that is not on vinyl, and I wonder why. Maybe there was not much of a market or demand in 1990 – although it was available on vinyl - and, if it was on vinyl today, I think there would be a demand! It sounds beautiful and hugely memorable no matter what format you listen to the album on. Some albums from the 1990s have been lost or do not get coverage – that is not the case with Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. In 2015, The Quietus revisited The Sundays’ debut and had this to say:
“Harriet Wheeler's voice is a genuine one-off, giddy and effortlessly gymnastic without ever losing sight of the humanistic warmth at its core - the crystalline prettiness she brings to 'You're Not The Only One I Know' lends it a gorgeous quality brilliantly at odds with the mundane minutiae of the lyrics, while her hurtling from punchy gurgles to stage-whispery confiding makes 'Skin & Bones' a terrifically arresting opening. Conversely, David Gavurin is one of the great overlooked guitarists of the entire canon; he might display shameless debts to more familiar figures at times (the aforementioned Marr on 'A Certain Someone', James Honeyman-Scott on 'I Kicked A Boy'), but there's a passion and a very real sense of release to his excursions in spangle'n'jangle that make for listening that's much more bewitching that any mere xeroxing could be.
What's also especially striking - and, given the title, wholly appropriate - is just how strong a reflection of student-age life this is, which, on reflection, is a rarer gift than might initially be assumed (consider, if you will, how much easier it is to rattle off lists of artists whose oeuvres correlate with adolescent experiences or properly grown-up concerns). At times, this can be remarkably specific - the excellent 'I Won' is perhaps the only song to ever build itself around flatshare politics - but it also captures the sensation of a life spent in preparation for a rather daunting sense of possibility. 'Hideous Towns' best expresses the intimidation this entails ("never went to Rome / I took the first bus home" etc), but it rears its head repeatedly, Wheeler at one point taking solace in the thought that "there's no harm in voicing your doubts" and, on 'Can't Be Sure', reflecting with perhaps an overly optimistic confidence that absolute conviction in what lies ahead is bound to emerge. Eventually.
But its real influence is a more benign and lasting one: as the first key toilet-circuit-departing release in the wake of the Roses/Mondays Pops invasion, it kicked the door completely off its hinges, letting a thrilling glut of talents who would previously never have had a look-in on the Smash Hits (or, indeed, smash hits) side of things come haring through in the weeks and months that followed. And, while the NME's review at the time was right to observe that it seemed unlikely you'd ever hear Tina Turner referring to sheds in a song, the alternative would go on to make such a good fist of setting the agenda for the mainstream through the decade that, come '98, the most played song on British radio was a cover of that selfsame shed-mentioning 'Here's Where The Story Ends'. As a signpost for a bewilderingly terrific time, then, Reading, Writing And Arithmetic remains impeccable, while, as an album in its own right, it's still a seldom-bettered affair”.
I will wrap things up shortly, but I am eager to bring in a review. It is hard to find a review from 1990 as, they have even been lost or archived or, in a lot of cases, people were still trying to get their heads around this fresh and exciting band! In 2014, Sputnik Music were eager to throw some love the way of a simply sensational work of brilliance:
“But what ultimately makes The Sundays are successful band, rather than just Harriet Wheeler And Her Backing Group, is what the rest of the band contributes. David Gavarin's guitar playing is the other highlight of the album. Gavarin is an underrated guitarist who crafted nearly as many memorable hooks as frequent subject of comparison Johnny Marr, and beyond his keen ear for composition, his guitar playing perfectly balances with Harriet's singing. The Sundays display a finely-tuned sense for melodies and countermelodies, never tipping the balance too far in one direction or the other. And Gavarin's taste for suspended chords and ethereal melodies on songs like "Joy" set The Sundays apart from groups like the derivative Cranberries.
“Here's Where The Story Ends” is a fine song, to be certain, but the album is filled with tracks that match or exceed its quality. “Hideous Towns” and “You're Not The Only One I Know” are particular standouts, and “Can't Be Sure” builds up in a satisfying way. Though Wheeler and Gavarin tended to get most of the attention, the rhythm section deserves compliments as well. Paul Brindley's bass playing, in particular, makes a subtle but enjoyable contribution to each of the tracks. Although it's tempting to remember The Sundays just for Harriet's vocals, the satisfying manner in which all the pieces come together give the record an enduring charm that sounds as fresh today as it did twenty-five years ago.
The Sundays' influence is found in, of all places, Japanese indie rock, where groups like The Pillows, Advantage Lucy, and Soutaisei Riron owe a lot of their guitar stylings and melodic sensibility to the band. Curiously, Mike Kinsella, in speaking about American Football, cited the band as an influence, in spirit if not exactly in style. In the same way Kinsella's album conjures impressions of the autumnal, suburban American midwest, The Sundays channel the English countryside with its stony, bucolic cottages and anxiously uncertain college days in equal measure. Its distance from the cynicism and detachment of modern independent music make Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic an album that's immediately charming in its honesty and appreciation of simple beauty”.
The Sundays’ third and final album, Static & Silence, arrived in 1997. Whilst that album gained some great reviews, it was not quite as lauded as their debut – even though the album got into the top-ten in the U.K. There has been this talk of the band reforming and playing and, on 10th October, 2014, during an interview on BBC Radio 6 Music's Radcliffe & Maconie radio programme, David Baddiel described Dave Gavurin as his "oldest mate" and stated that "they [Dave and Harriet] are doing music, but whether they ever put that out there, I’ve no idea. They're the most paranoid people about actually putting stuff out there". I doubt The Sundays’ will record anything else, though it is a shame their debut has not been given the anniversary treatment as it turns thirty – new vinyl and a few demos from the studio floor. Regardless, we can access Reading, Writing and Arithmetic on streaming services and revel in its wonder. On 15th January, 2020, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic sounds as beguiling, entrancing and fascinating…
AS it did thirty years ago.