A Sonth of Mondays

Does anybody have any idea how good The Sundays were? If you don't like Zen instrumentation, crazy, crazy manipulation of harmonic expectations and the insane degree of pathos in that chick's voice (Harriet Wheeler) then you should skip these emotional geniuses of soundscape.
Although their last record got a little formulaic, a little plastic, their first, "Reading, Writing and Arithmetic" from '89 sounds like the pussy version of Wire (in a good way). They play a lot of really great modal games and they also intertwine bass and guitar into a seamless instrument in a pretty unprecedented way. '92's masterful "Blind" does what the Police did in 1980- take a unique, tightly designed sound and mine it for maximum pop transcendence. "Goodbye" is where these guys sort of hit their perfect moment. Wheeler's unbelievable vocal power and ear are really what set this track apart; this is an absolute bravura performance. I saw them at The Belly Up in Solana beach in '93 when they toured that record and they fucking PUMMELED this song. Wheeler made the unusual and great choice of recreating her recorded performance note for note, every falsetto leap, every swoop and glissando. Guitarist Gavurin was precise and very fey British. The rhythm section was in danger of anonymity. But with a singer like this taking the stage, maybe that's exactly what's called for.

So yeah, anyway- what an awesome fucking band. But I think three albums was just perfect for them: the whole gestalt had a fairly short shelf life, as brilliant and affecting as it was.