Reading Writing And Arithmetic

Such a nice album, just a bit annoying to get it on a saturday

This one always throws me for a loop, I do enjoy the light-as-a-feather twee instrumentals and writing but there's something about this LP that holds me back from loving it. Part of it is the repetitive lyricism (I can't stand 'Story' for how many times it hits the chorus line), and there is a pretty clear lack of dynamic contrast meaning the whole album feels pretty samey across the whole 40 minutes. Still a worthwhile add though, this LP seems to be on every Greatest Album list except the 1001 and documents a scene that otherwise doesn't get much attention here.

I've been a fan of The Sundays for a number of years now so it was nice to listen to this album. I normally listen to a couple of liked songs and haven't really listened to this album in full in a few years. It's got that dream pop / jangly sound I just really enjoy. It also feels very modern as a lot of bands are making music like this today. Also random fact, the band Wednesday is named after this band. My personal rating: 5/5 My rating relative to the list: 5/5 Should this have been included on the original list? Slight yes.

I have always been completely convinced that Harriet Wheeler has the most beautifully-clear pop music voice ever and I’m over the moon to find this album here. It reminds me of the lovely everyday things, exemplified by Harriet singing about lovely everyday things. Shout out to the surprisingly-syncopated percussive hits on Hideous Towns. It’s lightning in a bottle that I’ll sip from over and over again.

Reading Writing And Arithmetic is a nice indie pop album. The Sundays power is the voice of Harriet Wheeler, their weakness is the absolute boring rhythm section on this album (especially the drums). "Here's Where the Story Ends" and "Can't Be Sure" are great songs, but the other tracks a not as great. As a complete album it's a bit of a drag to me.

Nice little sleepy time album.

Reading Writing And Arithmetic is fine, couple of good singles, bit plain but Here's Where The Story Ends is nostalgic quality. 2/5, not enough substance for me.

This is some old school indie pop that feels like it could have succeeded immensely with today’s female driven indie sound. The singer has a wonderfully dreamy soft singing style that makes the whole album a pretty smooth listen. The instrumentals on this are quite easy going and mesh well with the lyricism that keeps the album pretty simplistic but well executed. It’s with revisiting and is quite a nice addition. 7.3/10

I expected the Cranberries but this was grating

So so wonderful. Lovely music and her voice is from heaven.

So small and perfectly formed, and a stepping stone between 80s indie and 90s shoegaze. Assumed they were from Austin or somewhere but they're actually from Bristol!

Goddamn I adore this album. One of those rare records I can put on and immediately brings me back to an easier time. Man this band were enjoyable and this album is such a nice debut - and even though I became even more of a fan of their second album ("Blind"), I think in retrospect Blind may have had higher peaks but this was the more consistently-listenable album. Such a short career; Harriet Wheeler had (has?) the perfect voice for these songs and I always wondered why they packed it in. Their 3rd album was pretty mid as they drifted away from this sound. I guess how much more can you do with the heavy chorus-laden clean guitar arpeggios of the first two albums... Excellent interplay between shimmering guitars and upper register bass playing; not sure if it was a happy accident or outstanding preproduction but they all matched perfectly together. Digress...digress... what a great pick, one of my favourites of the era, and a rare album/band where not only do I tolerate the vocals they are the best part of a nice package. Nothing but great memories and things to say about it. 9/10 5 stars IMO: Belonged in the book? Yes.

I think shockingly I’ve only listened to like one or two of these songs but wow was it amazing. Such a beautiful smooth voice with just good music.

Forgot about one of the songs on this album and how I used to play it nonstop. Great sounding group.

Ooh, The Sundays, one of the favorite bands of one of my favorite artists (Lauren Mayberry of Chvrches). I know “Here’s Where the Story Ends,” but I don’t think I’ve listened to the rest of this album before. I love dream pop, and I love the aforementioned “Here’s Where the Story Ends,” so I have some really high hopes for this album. I can’t wait to fire this up! This is an absolutely excellent album, and after listening to all of it, I can’t believe it’s not on the main list. Truly a crime that The La’s made it in over this. The guitar work on this album is really excellent, and that dreamy sound is the perfect combination of The Smiths and shoegaze. Harriet Wheeler’s vocals are excellent as well, and I think the bass work is really good too. The bass playing is good not just for what it does, but also for what it doesn’t do. It’s perfectly in the background throughout this album, giving the sound a great balance. It almost serves as a bridge between the dreamy sound and the feeling of authenticity in the lyrics. “Here’s Where the Story Ends” is easily one of the strongest tracks on the album, and until today, I’d never noticed how great the bass line is. As it turned out, I was also familiar with “Can’t Be Sure,” which is just as good as the aforementioned “Here’s Where the Story Ends.” That shimmering guitar on “Can’t Be Sure” is fantastic, and I recognized it immediately. “Skin & Bones” is great too. The guitar playing on the chorus is so fast and precise, but the overall sound of the song is very dreamlike. The drumming and guitar playing on “Hideous Towns” were great too, and I really enjoyed the subtle guitar melody on “A Certain Someone.” Overall, this is a wonderful album, and I have no idea why I’ve never listened to all of it before today. What an excellent addition to the list!

Gooood

A really delightful throwback to the early 90s. The world used to sound like this all the time!

7/10. Yeah, I can dig it

Some dreamy indiepop

I didn’t think I knew this band and then Here’s Where The Story Ends came on and I’m suddenly singing along and knew the chorus. Slowly I realized I really liked this song back in the day. Maybe not at the top of my list of albums but very enjoyable nonetheless and a fun blast from the past.

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Skin and bones, Here’s where the story ends, A certain someone

Good album Here’s where the story ends is so fire

This one is really nostalgic for me. Super cozy, love the vocals. It's not the most musically groundbreaking thing ever, but it just makes me feel nice and that's the most important thing.

I may be about to be accused of heresy, but I think I actually prefer the Tin Tin Out version of Here's Where The Story Ends. Saying that - this is definitely about the jangliest of janglepop records and on that basis probably has room in the list.

Delightfully right on the edge between the 80s and 90s alt rock which makes sense as it's from 1990

Nice accessible dream pop album,

Vaguely felt like I remembered this band, I went and checked the video of what seemed like their biggest hit and video opening (ladybug on a mocrophone) also seemed familiar. But neither that song (Summertime) nor any of this felt familiar at all. The latter clocking in quite a bit weirder than the former would have led me to expect. Very indy, engagingly odd, a little too much on the soft side for my tastes. Would try more.

I'd say "pleasant" is the best word to describe the Sundays. Everything about their music is pleasant. The singer's voices, the songs, the production. Nothing wrong with that, but also nothing that really reaches out and grabs you either. 3 stars.

Fun and jangly

Fine I guess

Dream pop, indie pop. Ni fu ni fa.

This feels very of its time and simultaneously timeless. I enjoyed hearing a blast from the past.

yawn.

I can't imagine someone rating this with a one-star review, and as of now, there are indeed none of them in this section. The music from The Sundays' *Reading Writing And Arithmetic* is objectively too "pleasant" for such a harsh grade. That being said, the 5-star reviews baffle me to an extent. They sort of enhance the nostalgia experienced by their authors -- which is perfectly understandable -- but they also show that a large majority of those authors can't exactly pinpoint which parts of the instrumentation and songwriting are so worthy of admiration *today*. This kind of take indirectly underlines my own, ironically -- as a reverse image of it. This music is "pleasant", sure. But there's also something that's very "undecided" in it... For dream pop, it's not lofty or spacious enough to be cinematic. Yet it also doesn't feel substantial or dynamic enough to truly explore other turf than dream pop. So you feel like you're stuck in a conundrum listening to this. You're in limbo. And by "you", I really mean "I", of course. Some songs here and there still stand out for various reasons ("Skin and Bones", because of the dissonant flourishes on the guitar, "Can't Be Sure" because of the very dry, almost industrial rhythm driving most of its length, "A Certain Someone" because of its sudden distorted jolts, absent elsewhere, for the most part...). Airy single "Here's Where The Story Ends" is not a bad song either, I guess, but it's still in the league of the rather meat-and-potatoes cuts comprising the rest of the tracklist -- whose piling up took me out of focus, so to speak. Speaking of "meat-and-potatoes", the bass player is a proficient guy, like all the other musicians, but there was something a bit conventional in those basslines, which didn't exactly match the mood of the rest of the music for me -- funny how one reviewer here thought the bass was great because it somehow offered a "bridge" between dream-pop and a more tangible world evoked in the lyrics or something. Looks like there are as many sensibilities among reviewers as there are micro-styles and discrete artistic intents in music. It's so mysterious when you see what makes some people tick boxes while others leave the latter blank... Like, whoever in here considered the music in this LP to be better than the one in the debut (and only) album by The La's is simply out of their mind for me. I wouldn't even know why you'd be driven to compare the two -- except from the time period? And then, there's the case of Harriet Wheeler's vocal performance and vocal lines. A pretty voice for sure, but one that also meanders a lot, with some inflexions that "feel" a bit stilted for my ears, enhanced by its very clear and centered place in the mix. Wheeler sometimes reminds me of Björk circa-The Sugarcubes, before she had the music-writing chops to match her pipes (and also without the quirkiness that the icelandic singer already routinely displayed by that time). Or she sounds like the local pub version of Elizabeth Fraser -- relatable, but without the awe-inducing fervor in her. This might be the whole point, I admit it. Something simple, something reassuring. Not "out there" like the names I've just mentioned, and therefore inducing warmer feelings for other listeners than your humble servant. I can have those sorts of feelings with similar-sounding acts far less known than The Sundays, by the way -- ones that were active not so long after that time period, like The Delgados or The Pastels. Yet for me, it's also what places The Sundays one or two notches under household dream-pop names such as Cocteau Twins or Mazzy Star. Which is why I can't include this record in my list of keepers. Sorry about that. For this one, I'm closer to the cold measuring of arithmetics than the joy of reading and writing, I'm afraid. 2.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 3. 7.5/10 for more general purposes (5/5 for the musicianship and production values + 2.5/5 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 94 (including this one) Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 112 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 232 --- Hey Émile, j'ai répondu sous Demon Days ET ta sélection pour la users list ! 🙂

I really don't care for her voice and it's so loud in the mix

But why

Reading, Writing and Arithmetic is [...] studio album by English alternative rock band [...]. It was released in 1990. Only these first lines from Wikipedia already gave me a good idea of what to expect, and indeed, it was what I received.