The Sundays : C or D

Seriously, Harriet Wheeler has the most beautiful female voice I've ever heard. Going against conventional rockist wisdom, I'd pick her over Aretha, Dusty, Nina, Billie or any other highly regarded musical woman in pop's history.

It's hard to believe it's been six years since Static & Silence came out (a full five years after Blind). I'm hoping there will be a 4th album by 2010, but I fear that will forever remain a daydream.

I am touched by Gareth's reference to Stevenage back there. But it's difficult to reconcile the wistful charms of Wheeler with the damply grim banality of the town. In fact they remind me of Norwich, party because that was where I was studying when I heard them and partly because they seem more appropriate to that slightly sleepy market town setting.

Harriet Wheeler once kissed me. I will take that memory to the grave.

She once waited at the same bus stop as me in Camden with David G, child and shopping. I will take that memory to Safeway.

I don't know if "Cry" is about the death of Harriet's dad, but I KNOW it's about the death of mine: I have to programme it out if I don't want to burst into tears.

But how about "Monochrome"? What an extraordinarily atmospheric song. It's so visual; I see these two little girls looking at the moon landings on a television, and Armstrong and Aldrin dancing through the air, and then the girls looking out the window at the moon.

They're dancing around -
slow puppets, silver ground,
and the stars and stripes in the sand.
We hear a voice from above,
and it's history.
And we stayed awake
all night.

They're dancing around.
It sends a shiver down my spine,
and I run to look in the sky,
and I half expect to hear them asking to come down.

That song sure sends a shiver down *my* spine.

"This is my life and it's all very well, but never never ever again...."

reading, writing and arithmetic does seem out on its own - sonically, lyrically - and Blind has a closer relation in Static and Silence I think. rwa is such a chilly, bare-floored record for all its talk of woollen things.

I recall the mixed reception Blind received on its release from the UK inkies. MM, which seemed to have thrown its lot in with the resurgent US rock scene and Brit rave culture with a little more gusto than indie centrale NME, embraced Blind as a wilful anomaly, a wistful gem - there was ET's glowing LP review, Mueller gushing over "Medicine" on the radio and a Quebecois live review in strips of purple. Lamacq gave the album a desultory three, maybe four out of ten in the NME, sad that the band he'd championed had somehow lost the power to jangle.

I saw them that December in Wolverhampton. Winter recast in the Wulfrun Hall, icicles on the lighting rig.

"This is my life and it's all very well, but never never ever again...."

This is a bad line that illustrates their weakness. It's nothing like Morrissey, or not like good Morrissey anyway.

I've been on vacation. Can someone please clue me in on what IIRC means?

IIRC means "if I remember correctly".

how did we let this go by without more explanation?????

I tried to post to this thread yesterday and things went wrong. So now, again, I will say, perhaps dully:

Careminted phrases pay the rent, and Jones delivers.

That sentence was far better the first time I sent it.

I *think* it was 'careminted'. If you have any better ideas, post them... below.

What a beautiful, poignant, delicious album. It has so many elements that have irritated me senseless in other bands (Cranberries, "Torn", Sixpence) but somehow it's all just charming and perfect and bicycles and cardigans and a dress, dress, dress that I've been sick on.

I also love the lyrics for "I kicked a boy", kind of the same violent un-twee-ness, sung in Wheeler's wonderfully girlish voice that has some sort of hidden madness to it deep down somewhere.

Oh x-post! :-)

I assume that Gauvin has never worn a dress, so it's probably safe to assume that particular lyric is Wheeler's. ;-)

The Sundays are coming back. Someday they will. Trust me. I just know it.
There is honestly no doubt in my mind that they will be back within the next 1-5 years, for reasons I mentioned upthread a little while ago.

Anyway, short of their inevitable, eventual return, this thread has nearly been done to death, for the time being. . .

Unless, however, we'd like to post/share more about good Sundays sound-a-likes. The Sundays are my favorite band times a million-billion, and I think going into depth on their best imitators would be a purposeful thing to do. (I'm always up for a good imitation/clone of my favorite band, The Sundays! (though, few exist). It seems truly odd to me, however, that some Sundays fans slag off other bands that sound a lot like The Sundays -- like, don't you want more of that Sundays sound???

So, maybe we can do that for a while, unless consensus requires another thread.

Shoestrings: "Naked"
This is a great one. I hate to just call them a Sundays imitation, for they're a fine band in their own right. And, believe it or not, I can actually imagine this song coming into being even without The Sundays having existed! But, because of the vocals, I have to rate this as probably the best Sundays sound-a-like I've ever really heard. It just sounds like The Sundays picking up from S&S with a few synth-string washes, and slightly more naiveté, for these people were younger when recording this than the Sundays people ever were on any of their albums.

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

I can really only think of very few other, worthy Sundays sound-a-likes. There really are a few, though (I've searched, and searched, and searched. I'll post them here later, unless we need another thread or something.

PS: The guy sings most of the songs on that Shoestrings album/most of their songs don't sound exactly like this.

Seeing this thread reminded me that I saw the Sundays with Madder Rose in Houston. One of the best shows I saw in the 90's. I need reading writing and arithmetic on record.

Saw that very tour:

https://nedraggett.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/not-just-the-ticket-65-the-sundays-june-5-1993/

Listened to a bit of their first LP this weekend, and wondered ... whatever became of Harriet Wheeler?

She and Gavurin have just been enjoying the domestic life for the last 18 or so years, it appears.

This thread is such a mean tease every time it gets bumped.

a little off-topic, but if you like both ethereal goth and The Sundays, then I have to recommend the second Innocence Mission album to you 'Umbrella'. It's one of the only good Sundays imitations I've ever heard (I've given dozens of bad Sundays imitations a chance), and it has, surprisingly, at least a couple of songs that sound kind of dark. At least search "Evensong" from that album - I promise you'll like it a lot. (Nothing else by Innocence Mission besides the 'Umbrella' album sounds like The Sundays though, - just to save your time).

― monster mash, Sunday, November 8, 2015 4:33 PM (one year ago)

I've been listening to the first two Innocence Mission albums a lot lately, and this is otm! I'm starting to wonder if 'God Made Me' might have been a deliberate send-up of the Innocence Mission. I like to imagine Harriet and Dave listening to Umbrella, being like, 'hey, these American Jesus freaks are eating our lunch!', and writing an innocuously-titled apostate anthem for the express purpose of breaking the Perises poor Catholic hearts. it probably didn't happen that way, but I can dream.

as for Sundays imitations, the lead singer of the Spanish band Fine channels Harriet Wheeler pretty strongly at times, though their style is more loungey indiepop than ethereal goth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE5XOBgU_po

nothing makes me happier than a sundays bump : )
will check out that IM album

Talking of Sundays imitations…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vt0d9YlTC4

^good call, this song is very Static & Silence-ish. I hadn't even heard of the Sundays back when it came out

and I don't think I've ever seen that video before because what is even going on with Natalie's hair

Wrong Impression was the reason I finally got Reading, Writing & Arithmetic. I told my brother how much I loved it and he said, "you should probably get the first Sundays album then". He was right. I do still love the Natalie Imbruglia single as well.

I avoided Wild Hoses for the longest time but it’s actually a great vehicle for Harriet

Wild Hoses.

OK .....

The rock stars who went back work thread makes me wonder about this lot & how they fund their child rearing. Even though it's none of my business.

p sure Harriet went into service with the civil service

Finding a pound doesn't count for much these days.

The Sundays are my go to for smiths-like music when i'm in a smiths-like mood but really don't want to hear morrissey (which as of the last year or so is all of the time, forever)

Leave us alone.
https://longreads.com/2019/07/30/searching-for-the-sundays/

^ That's rather good. Can't say I've ever yearned to meet any musician. But can understand how something like RW&A could inspire such a thing.

Gawd this article is the embodiment of “tl;dr”... I can’t even skim it effectively.

tl;dr for ya: big obsessive buildup and then he didn't meet them.

It's the story of an adult learning about boundaries (ie, figuring out, thankfully in time, that showing up unannounced on your heroes' doorstep when they clearly value their privacy and have explicitly said as much to you through a proxy is an unambiguously bad idea).

Seemed like a string of clichés and truisms threaded around a fairly creepy premise - "they've demonstrated they have no interest in publicity or interviews, but if they only met me they'd change their minds, and I won't take no for an answer! Oh I guess they have a right to privacy after all, we've all learned something and let me explain it to you." Yeesh.

And yet, people moaning because he didn't 'deliver'

wow this guy is the absolute worst

this isn't even about the band, this is an awful guy's attempt to make himself the centre of a story that nobody else wanted to be told

I mean, would I have been thrilled if they consented to an interview? Absolutely. If it turned out that their 'consent' was the result of someone jimmying the lock on their back door at 3 AM and sitting at the foot of their bed until they finally relented? Not so much. Not so much.

wow this guy is the absolute worst

hey, he’s no Abraham Reisman

Well, something I did not expect

BIG MUSIC NEWS: I have a new band with Patrick Hannan of The SUNDAYS! An absolute dream come true. We are called The Wild Fell. More music (and shows) soon, but for now stream (or download) our first song "The Ghost You Love" now!
https://t.co/v52c76tsoI

— David Obuchowski, Peugeot Haver & Vax Getter (@DavidOfromNJ) June 20, 2022