590 The Sundays - Reading- Writing And Arithmetic (1990)

 590 The Sundays - Reading- Writing And Arithmetic (1990)

Studio Album - Pop Rock

About the Act:

The Sundays were a band from Bristol, UK, who existed for 1988-1997, and created three albums in that time. Their best known songs were Here's Where The Story Ends and Summertime.

About the Album:

This was their first album.

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

I didn't really know anything about this band. When the album started, I was thinking "her voice, it reminds me of somebody". I unscrewed the top of my head and scratched my brain. In the gap between track 1 and track 2, and in the intro to track 2 I was thinking of a line, sung by the voice I was reminded of. It went "It's a little souvenir, of a terrible year..". And then the words for the second track started and I realised it was that very song, Here's Where The Story Ends. I don't know if the intro led me to it, or if I genuinely found that Harriet's singing reminded me of herself. I'll probably never know.

So let's start on the voice, as that's where I came in, effectively. It's a great voice. It's a shame that they seem to have died off, and as far as I know she's not still singing professionally. It's a clear, sweet voice, that sounds to be effortlessly tuneful. She can hit high notes, and it's just nice to listen to. It's quite expressive, but a happy voice. It sounds deceptively small, because it's actually quite strong. She sounds like she's smiling. As I listened, I pictured her as short, with a blond bob and dimples. Well, when I saw a picture, I was quite wrong. Well, she is on the short side.

There's a little bit of the Bjork pixie to it, a bit of Alanis Morrissette, even a little of Cerys Matthews, and quite a lot of the singer from Sixpence None The Richer. 

Let's move onto the music. They are described as being Alt Rock, but they are not very Alt to my mind, quite mainstream pop/rock with quite simple instrumentation. There's quite a bit of acoustic guitar, and these are definitely songs designed to showcase Harriet's singing. It's kind of light rock, but with the occasional musical twist that makes it quite interesting. It reminds me in nature of Crowded House, and again Sixpence None The Richer, and quite a slew of light acoustic-guitar rock that was around at the time. The playing is light and deft, matched well to her voice. In order of importance the production favours voice, guitar, drums and then bass.

The song writing, well the music is nice, the lyrics are less of a focus, and even on my third listen now are not impacting me a great deal. They're mildly interesting, but of secondary importance.

So, I found I really enjoyed it. It's happy, with shades of beauty to the voice especially. It's summer-sitting-in-the-park music.

8.1/10


Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6CmJJCI3lOn5XVZ68hP9kY

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLI6kLIhBBwmRtJBX-ENpxj8HjlGaDHkvz

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading,_Writing_and_Arithmetic



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