http://www.thei.aust.com/music97/pow21.html
Well, just when you thought it was safe to say 'Who'? And consign fab late '80s/early '90s delicate pop craftsfolk The Sundays to the 'Whatever happened to?' department, look what happens ... they pop up and announce a brand new album, the desire to tour and stake a claim for the comeback of the year title.
In terms of time we reckon only My Bloody Valentine can beat them - and Kevin Shields is still swearing he'll have the album out this year. Yep, right, Kev. The Sundays third set will be entitled "Static And Silence" - which seems fair given the rather lengthy sabbatical they've enjoyed - and hits the racks on September 22, two weeks after a single, "Summertime".
The Sundays last album "Blind" (1992) was quite rapid in eventuating by comparison, coming only three years after their debut "Reading, Writing And Arithmetic".
So what have they been doing? Breeding, actually. At least core duo guitarist Dave Gavurin and singer Harriet Wheeler have entered parenthood and consequently decided to take time out.
Gavurin said recently, ""We toured quite a lot on the back of our last record, and that took up most of the year after that, and then we just took a bit of time off. We had a bit more of a social life again and basically did other things. Then we set up a studio and had a child."
The couple built their own studio at their north London home and eventually started recording their album about a year ago. "It was fucking enjoyable, basically," Gavurin said. "It was just much more fun (recording it at home), but probably a bit more time-consuming, you know, learning how to use everything. It's been a very different process. It is weird thinking, 'Yeah, this evening we're really going to do some work,' then Billie (their little girl) wakes up and that's the end of it."
"But in a way, it makes things smoother because it does keep you grounded," Wheeler said. "It stops you going completely up your arse, in the musical, creative sense."
They also had no real idea of what they wanted to do; no agenda. "We don't sit down and say, 'Right, this time we're going to do a jungle album'. That's fine if that's what you want to do, but we just sit down and see what comes up. This time round, we felt the songs needed words that had some kind of an emotional impact to them, whereas the first album was more jaunty and ironic," Wheeler said.
Tracks include "Homeward", "When I'm Thinking About You", "Monochrome", "Folk Song", "I Can't Wait" and "Another Flavour".
To our ears their debut still rates as one of the most gorgeous British folk-pop albums of the last decade. Songs such as "Skin & Joy" and "I Won't" exploded with the uplifting sweeps of melodic joy, "My Finest Hour" was a low key, rainy day, poetry and "Can't Be Sure" and "Hideous Towns" subtle, tense, mini-masterpieces built on beguiling semi-acoustic figures.
The Sundays knew all about atmosphere, charged - as in electrically - space and burbled with an energy and vigour that set them apart from compatriots such as Everything But The Girl and the Cocteau Twins.
And while "Blind" wasn't the set it should have been, losing some of the atmosphere to a more electric jangle and ring, it had it's moments.
"Static And Silence" looms as an exciting and uexpected pleasure amidst the normal pre-Christmas holocaust of big names releases, best ofs and anthologies. - MIKE GEE