Album Feature: Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic
Recorded: 1989-1990 Rough Trade Records, London, United Kingdom
Release Date: January 15, 1990
The Sundays released Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic with no intention of gaining international recognition but became one of the most defining bands of the 90’s British indie rock scene. With their jangly guitar, laid-back yet intentional rhythms, and Harriet Wheeler’s silky vocals, it’s no wonder The Sundays have gone down in alternative rock music history and influenced so many succeeding bands. This album, with much of its music written by Wheeler and guitarist David Gauvrin while attending Bristol University, defines the familiar yet entrancing sound The Sundays would continue to carry through their nine years of existence. Their debut single, Can’t Be Sure, hit the UK charts and turned heads in the British indie scene. Here’s Where the Story Ends was released as a single in the United States and sent the band soaring to #1 in the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Skin and Bones leads us quickly into the world of The Sundays’ echoing cavern of soaring electric guitar and shimmering rhythms. The song begins with what sounds like layered woodwinds in a spiraled descent ending abruptly with an opening crash into the guitar line that will characterize the rest of the song. The band instantly creates an ambient yet simple space with each instrumentalist laying back just enough to introduce the angelic vocals of Harriet Wheeler. While the beat is uptempo and bright, the verse has this comfortable slowness and open space, afforded by the song being in 5/4. This calm trudge of a verse seems to mimmick the lyrical content: that feeling of going through the motions, how mundane daily tasks required for societal participation feel. Wheeler ends the verse with the line, “Can’t say I really care at the end of it all,” as if to drift off back into the emptiness she was attempting to fill until she jumps back in with the line “actually, oh, there’s something I’ve found it’s that we’re just flesh and blood”, exploding into a sonic reverie. This whole song, with it’s casual and playful lyricism, feels like a phone call to a friend, comfortably venting after they ask how you’re doing. Skin & Bones is a fantastic choice being the first song on the album as it shows off the musicianship within each member alongside the intimate nature of the rest of the LP, a glimpse into the writing process of the couple, Harriet and David, who started it all.
The first song I ever heard off this album was Here’s Where the Story Ends. I found myself working my way down a YouTube rabbithole of old band concerts I wish I could have been around to see. I came across a video of The Sundays, a band I’d only ever heard of, performing this song live in Germany. I was instantly mesmerized by the sweet chord progression (made up of simply altered forms of G and C major chords, such an interesting realization for a song so dynamic), the jangly guitar, and of course the angelic yet full timbre of Wheeler’s vocals. The repeated ascending major scale melody: 1,2,3,5 and 4,5,6,8 of each initial melodic line in the verses, sets up a positive thematic feel for the song, a contrast to the burnt-out and sorrowful reminiscent lyrics. In a final refrain leading the verses into the chorus, Wheeler repeats the titular line “Here’s where the story ends” with a downturned melody capturing that exact idea. Then comes the chorus, the shining musical emerald of the entire song and perhaps the entire album. Wheeler transforms her earlier breathiness into her signature, clear and exacting tone. Gavurin layers a spare but fattening electric guitar line throughout the duration of the chorus. There is such a nostalgic, melancholic, yet comforting sound encompassing this song, leaving any listener entranced by the music and lyricism.
Can’t Be Sure follows directly after Here’s Where the Story Ends and rumbles in with a syncopated drum line. Wheeler’s lyrics start to demonstrate a thematic element reflecting the two previous tracks in her discussion of the mundane, beginning the song with repeatative lines describing living for possessions, money, and a job. The line, “England my country such miserable weather” is so emblematic of The Sundays’ moody, cloudy sound. This song relies on its deeper layers with the croaking bass and fast-paced rhythms on the kick and toms. “And you know desires a terrible thing but I rely on mine”…”You know I can’t be sure what I want anymore it’ll come to me later” are two relatable lines for anyone of any time listening to these lyrics, especially the targeted younger audience setting off into the world unsure of their place. Wheeler once again encapsulates the feeling of each word in her melancholic melody. The song following, I Won, focuses on acoustic guitar, Wheeler’s vocals are drier, but the recognizable timbre of Gauvrin’s electric guitar comes in later and splashes across the chorus. The final bridge continues to build into almost a wall of sound then ends abruptly.
You’re Not the Only One I Know found itself to be a popular song on this album. A softer break from the uptempo Hideous Towns describing the lifestyle people in poorer London suburbs are almost destined to experience. Wheelers vocals are breathier and soft, riding gently across the muted electric and layered acoustic guitar. This song is floating on a cloud, lost in thought on the train, and waking up on a rainy day. The lyrics are cycled with questions that feel rhetorical— as if another person has been criticizing her behavior. The titular chorus refrain line, addresses this person and shuts them down, “You’re not the only one I know and I’m too proud to talk to you anyway". As if to remind herself more than anyone else that she can make her own decisions. An instrumental bridge in the middle of the song takes the listeners focus away from the lyrics as Gauvrin lays his slow, reverbed guitar line out plainly and cleanly, in such a sweet manner that feels like a gentle acceptance of the way things are. This song goes hand in hand with Here’s Where the Story Ends in its feeling of a slow day spent reminiscing, but differentiates itself with its lyrical sense of frustration and less structured composition.
There is no album like Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. The Sundays genuinely created a world. As the album progresses from You’re Not the Only One I Know to A Certain Someone, a song with a heavier rhythm, a harder electric drive, and Wheeler’s vocals supporting a heavy scream; the songs lay themselves out in all their complexities but remain intertwined with one another, lyrical topics bleeding in and out of tracks, rhythmic ideas loosening and tightening like the transition from A Certain Someone to I Kicked a Boy. The humor in this track is not to be ignored, a song representative of that same humor spread evenly across the entire album. The Sundays’ seem to have such a great understanding of their sound and own something I always search for in a musician: the ability to make fun of themselves. You can’t be a young British indie rock band in 1990, talking about cloudy weather and searching for purpose without making a few jokes pointing at the stereotypical nature of it all. My Finest hour, the second to last song on the album has some of the most classic Harriet Wheeler vocals that soar above the consistently glittery instrumentals. The album finishes with Joy, characterized by very spacious and simple instrumentation. Wheeler’s vocals are softer, but with wide vibrato. The song carries us out with a build similar to that of I won, Gavurin giving us a final demonstration of his creative use of the guitar and all the otherworldly sounds it can create. Do not let this album pass you by; let it entrance you, make you laugh, cry, build you a world, and then fall into it.