One of my favorite sounds in music I’ve listened to is whatever magic The Sundays puts into their music. Their albums are all mainly from the mid to late 90s, and while the production isn’t revolutionary, I really believe the way they blend the vocals of Harriet Wheeler is what caught my attention the most. I have never thought to research more about their team or who did a majority of their production work, so it was interesting to find out who was behind it. I had to do a lot of research because the producers are not super well known in america– their credits are names that I am not familiar with whatsoever, but after listening to a few of their songs, they definitely stayed in line with my ‘taste,’ or aspects that I appreciate about a song.
The Sundays do a lot of their own production– the credits under all of their albums list Harriet Wheeler and David Gavurin, the singer and guitarist of the Sundays, as the secondary producers under their albums. Their earliest album, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, listed Ray Shulman as their primary producer for the entire album. Although it does not clearly indicate this anywhere, my assumption is that he worked a lot on the arrangement of music due to his vast background in songwriting and arranging. After doing some research into his credits, I found that he also was the producer for a band called “The Sugarcubes,” which was actually the band that Bjork was originally the lead singer for before her solo career. The Sugarcubes were huge in the UK, so my assumption is that Ray Shulman was a valued producer for indie/alternative genres of music. Reading, Writing and Arithmetic was my first discovery of The Sundays, and I believe to be the ‘least moody’ of their three most popular albums (the two others being Blind and Static and Silence). Because Wheeler and Gavurin played large parts in their production throughout all of their albums, there is not a whole lot of distinct differences that I can point out between Shulman’s work on Reading Writing and Arithmetic versus the producers who worked on the other albums, which I will discuss later. However I think the theme and sound of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic were clearly conveyed, which is a huge factor as to why The Sundays took off after its release.
In terms of my personal opinion, I am a huge fan of ‘ethereal’ sounds and clear blends in music. I love being able to hear distinct instrument lines, however I appreciate the way they are blended where it’s distinct, but you almost have to do a bit of searching for it. If I could describe The Sundays in one word, I think sparkly would be what I would choose. The layering and the usage of effects were used extremely tastefully, especially in the vocals. I used to be a vocal major in high school, so I can’t help but fixate on the vocal lines in music whenever I listen, so you can see why The Sundays would be a clear pull to my taste. While I often can’t tell what she is saying, it’s conveyed as the style, not confusion. I think it’s important for a song to make you melt into it, rather than sit on top and listen. When I listen to a song that almost places the instrumentals and vocals too far apart, I can’t listen in the same manner. The Sundays, particularly in their later albums, do a fantastic job of maintaining this style of listening without losing focus or making it too mushy (if this makes sense.)
This is a nice transition to talking more about the main producer listed under both Blind and Static and Silence, Dave Anderson. In particular, Dave Anderson is credited as an engineer for both Blind and Static and Silence, but is also specifically credited for playing the organ and piano for Static and Silence. My assumption is that he was a very involved producer, and did both arrangements and engineering for these albums. Ironically, there were less recognizable names under Anderson’s credits, however this definitely does not take away from the clear impact he had on the sound of The Sundays. I really tried researching more about Dave Anderson, however found significantly less information about him online. I’m curious why they would have taken what seems to be a ‘step down’ in terms of credibility for their producer, however thinking about the sound difference between these albums and Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, I have a theory that maybe he gave them more ‘freedom’ in their production, but also made a greater addition to their team in terms of musicality. Obviously, Wheeler and Gavuran have a great ear, so it wouldn’t shock me if they had a better approach at developing their own sound than passing it along to a ‘big’ producer. I can safely say that both Cry and Static and Silence are my preferred albums over Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, and now that I’m thinking about it, this could be why. I found that Cry and Static and Silence both had much more freedom in their instrumentals, and a ‘moodier’ take on all of the songs. It seems like they leaned even further into their own style, rather than leaning more towards the desired sound that might have come from the success of their song “Summertime” in Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. That song honestly sticks out like a sore thumb in their discography, and my only skip when I’m trying to go through one by one. While it is a great song in itself and I do love it, I feel like it does not follow the sound of the rest of their music– which was a good thing for their success, however not a great thing if they did not intend on this sound. I wish I could sit down with The Sundays to pick their brain— I have a lot of theories.