The Sundays attempted to live up to the expression "never in a month of Sundays" by taking more than three years to release Blind, the follow-up album to their 1989 debut Reading, Writing & Arithmetic. Now, nearly five years later, their third album Static And Silence has finally arrived, taking them off the missing-in-action list.
The core duo of vocalist Harriet Wheeler and guitarist David Gavurin acknowledge that the main line of media questioning will be as much about where they have been as the music they have made. "We didn't plan to be away for any length of time," maintains Gavurin. "After coming back off tour in the summer of 1993, we wanted to take time off and have some semblance of life outside the band. We had a child in 1995 and then decided to finally set up our own studio, which obviously took more time, learning how to use it. The longer things went on, the less it seemed like we should hurry and the more we should be satisfied."
Employing the same rhythm section of bassist Paul Brindly and drummer Patrick Hannan as on the first two albums, Wheeler and Gavurin's relaxed pace of working has clearly seeped into the new record, The Sundays' second for Parlophone (their first was on Rough Trade). Although the band are known for their gentle, pastoral style, distinguished by Wheeler's lilting vocals, Static And Silence is their most intimate, considered record yet. "For us, it's a more mature record, which doesn't mean wearing a cardigan and slippers, but a bit more grown up," says Gavurin. "We are older after all, and the lightness and naivety of the first album would be inappropriate now. If we had any plan, it was to do something that moved us quite strongly. Before we started the album, we were listening a lot to Van Morrison, whose songs can really get to you. We'd had those elements in our music before but never at the forefront."
The homely atmosphere that surrounded the making of the album equally had an effect. "In terms of performances, working from home allowed us not to worry if we weren't feeling in the mood at 11 in the morning," says Wheeler. "It meant that we could leave something and come back, without that usual studio pressure."
Gavurin adds, "It also meant we were freer to experiment, to try out different instruments and to get to where we wanted to on a song."
Wheeler says that neither Parlophone nor their American label Geffen applied any pressure. "Both labels knew what they were taking on at the start," she says.
Parlophone managing director Tony Wadsworth agrees that the superbly melodic results justify the time taken. "They could have delivered an album that was second best three years ago, but that wouldn't have been right for them," he says. "Anyway, they have an eye for detail in what they do which means they won't settle for anything second best."
Though hardcore fans will be thrilled, there will still be some detractors who will argue that Static And Silence represents no real creative advance from The Sundays' preceding albums, both of which sold half a million copies worldwide. Wadsworth argues that the arrangements, with dreamy strings on Cry, flute on Your Eyes, horns on I Can't Wait and keyboards elsewhere embellishing the band's traditional guitar-based line-up, represent an advance. "And once you've lived with the album for a while, you'll realise how much of a breath of fresh air it is," he promises. "Nobody else is making albums of this type."
The album is preceded by the breezy opening track, Summertime, on September 8, which offers a litmus test for how much their popularity has been sustained. "In the pop part of the business, there's a real danger of leaving too long a gap, but The Sundays have very little to do with fashion any more," says Wadsworth. "Like Van Morrison, there's a strong musical vision that is expanded upon with each release. If you come back with something strong, it doesn't matter how long you've been away."