The Sundays : C or D

they are rather breathless

It's the last part of "My Finest Hour" you know it...the last fucking 45 seconds or whatever it is that they do there...totally divorced from the rest of the song, but you know...

And then they go into "Joy" and by god I want to know what the hell else you want out of an album than this one.

You know when I met Harriet Wheeler at the club, I remember asking her what they were into musically and she said "oh you know the Smiths, Cocteau Twins" you know just what you'd expect! She also mentioned Jimi Hendrix, believe it or not.

I Kicked A Boy, too.

The Rolling Stones!

Fucking YES! WILD HORSES!!!!!

Certainly the best version of that song I have ever heard; but then I don't really understand the general heated adoration of the Burritos' take. The delicate touches that the Sundays added, the low-slung and high-flying guitar riffs and her dreamy way of singing it, seem to me to clean up next to any other reading of t that song - indeed it must be the greatest Stones cover I have ever heard. Virtually the greatest COVER I have ever heard, full stop.

these records (the first one anyway) seriously need a remastering and some kind of deluxe treatment.

Apart from the remastering, what would the deluxe treatment involve? I have 3Rs on first-month-or-so-of-release vinyl (as well as CD), Norwich HMV £5.99 sticker probably intact, which, though I haven't spun it in ages, is probably the most deluxe I can imagine it ever getting.

Mind you: I used to be really frustrated about the lack of a lyric sheet on, at least, the vinyl, and actually wrote to Rough Trade asking them for this (or anything else Sundays-related). A white envelope came through the door a few weeks later with the lyrics to the LP photocopied by someone in the office, nothing else, no note or acknowledgement as I recall. I was looking for that envelope the other day but goodness knows just where it is now.

The Sundays had b-sides (a few anyway), and I'm sure that if whoever was putting together a deluxe edition was feeling industrious that demos, alternate takes and non-album cuts could be located. I wonder what the demand would be like, though. Anyone who was a Sundays fan in 1990 still seems to be as big of a Sundays fan today, but there's definitely a drop-off point.

They released fewer extra B-side songs that almost any other band of comparable stature. Re. the first LP for instance, there is only one extra B-side: 'don't tell your mother' (which is tremendous). There were a couple of B-sides re. the 2nd LP: one is about 90 seconds long (and gorgeous), the other is a (gorgeous) cover. They did more for the 3rd LP, I think - but at least 2 or 4 of the B-sides from that era are indeed demos and alternate takes (of 'can't be sure' and 'you're not the only one i know').

Certainly the best version of that song I have ever heard; but then I don't really understand the general heated adoration of the Burritos' take. The delicate touches that the Sundays added, the low-slung and high-flying guitar riffs and her dreamy way of singing it, seem to me to clean up next to any other reading of t that song - indeed it must be the greatest Stones cover I have ever heard. Virtually the greatest COVER I have ever heard, full stop.

I think I agree.

My January band for the last few years.

― roxymuzak, Friday, January 4, 2008 9:12 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yeah linger is an amazing song to hear at this time of year.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/post.jpg

Listening to STATIC & SILENCE for first time in years, actually, on spotify. It hasn't of course changed, but sounds fine.

'She' probably still the highlight, the equal of most of the 2nd LP, say.

Dear me, my opinions seem never to change, over however many years.

I like the clanking piano at 3:20 of track 5 also.

'Your Eyes' is OK, lively and nimble, a bit different from other Sundays. I've only just noticed, nearly 12 years on, the line about 'I think I'm off to Japan', accompanied by 'Japanese' crashing gong.

listening the entire back catalog is helping me through my working day right now.

Wild Horses couldn't drag me away

Oh god, please don't even get me started on the Sundays.

don't even get me started. Have you heard the first and second albums? HAVE YOU?

Come on, let's bring it down to earth. Most folks only know them from this song:

And they don't even the HALF of what they're missing.

Alex, thanks.

Okay no, I want to talk about this band RIGHT NOW. I don't care if you hate them, write me about them. god, in heaven the last traces of the soul of the Smiths were evident in the Sundays. You can't take it away from me, you young people with your hip hip-hip stuff...

I'm sorry but if you stack the first Sundays on top of the second one, then you have got some fantastic fucking legendary music going on.

See you at the Stone Roses fanclub meetup! LOLOLOL Mark G. back me up!

Oh god the cops are going to arrest me cause I sing too loud to it

But I gotta tell you that one "I Kicked A Boy" that one sends me to tears.
Hurts me in my heart, that one. Don't care if anyone thinks I'm square.

And that's why "Finest Hour" is a moment every respectable gay man should experience.

I'm 18 years old again when I hear this music. Take note, gay lads.

still <3<3<3<3

Aww, I was hoping this was a Bimble thread revive from beyond the grave.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i-0FB68LoQ

This is srsly one of the best things ever. ilu bimble

In such a mood for Harriet's voice today, listening to Reading Writing & Arithmetic is really improving my afternoon

Thank you once again, Spotify, for stuff like this: an absolutely gorgeous song, which should have been on Static and Silence, consigned to the b-side of the Cry single.

See how it's shining through the dark
As the teardrops fall and it illuminates the room
And we can't stop staring for a moment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFBAGSO7TrI

Static & Silence sounds lovely tonight.

"I used to be really frustrated about the lack of a lyric sheet on, at least, the vinyl, and actually wrote to Rough Trade asking them for this (or anything else Sundays-related). A white envelope came through the door a few weeks later with the lyrics to the LP photocopied by someone in the office, nothing else, no note or acknowledgement as I recall. I was looking for that envelope the other day but goodness knows just where it is now."

Reading this made me think "I miss the days when I'd do this kind of thing" but when I thought about it, I don't ever think I've written to a record company for lyrics ... A weird nostalgia for something that never actually happened.

I think I might now know where that envelope is.

I think Reading Writing and Arithmetic is pretty solid, though I'm not as crazy about Wheeler's voice as some. It's that fashion for faux-naive, girlish-sounding voices in early '90s alternative music that dates it a bit. Cf. Kim Deal and Edie Brickell.

faux-naive, girlish-sounding voices in early '90s alternative music that dates it a bit

One of the only styles from the 90s I'm still fond of and wish was as widespread now as it was then.

And yet, if the Sundays came back, they would still have a massive amount of goodwill.

ha that's a great story about the lyrics sheet! very Rough Trade.

their cover of Wild Horses is ... somethin else

just imagine Mark Wahlberg and Reese Witherspoon necking

ok now what

Now take your shirt off.

Always makes me think of Buffy's prom

Glad pop culture never ruined this song for me. I still think of just listening to it in my room and pining for Harriet.

ditto

it breaks my heart

Where did they go?

READING, WRITING & ARITHMETIC is one of my favorite albums of all time. Equivalent in quality, IMO, to The Smiths' or The Stone Roses' debut LPs.

mmeeeeee too

Equivalent in quality, IMO, to The Smiths' or The Stone Roses' debut LPs.

I am offended on behalf of The Sundays.

o SNAP!

Correct, though, that this is one of the finest albums.

Blind gets a lot of stick but imo Goodbye is the best thing they ever did. It has serious bite, none of the whimsy of the debut that doesn't really appeal, and the multiple guitars at the end absolutely slay me.