Track Listing

1. Summertime
2. Homeward
3. Folk Song
4. She
5. When I'm Thinking About You
6. I Can't Wait
7. Cry
8. Another Flavour
9. Leave This City
10. Your Eyes
11. So Much
12. Monochrome

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25421 in Music
• Published on: 1997
• Released on: 1997-09-23
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

Amazon.com
This British act, led by Harriet Wheeler, was always one of the more uplifting members of the shoe-gazer crowd, a point emphasized here by lovely lead single "Summertime" (which was released at precisely the wrong time of the year, sadly). The five-year hiatus from their last album has created a more mature, strum-along sound best heard on "Homeward," the guitar-textured "Another Flavor," and the orchestral "She." As for Wheeler, she's enchanting even when singing a track called "Monochrome." --Jeff Bateman

Customer Reviews

No static, no silence... thankfully
Five years elapsed between the Sundays' second and third album. But those five years were worth it: "Static and Silence" is a reflective, increasingly mature album, crafted with plenty of new influences and centered on Harriet Wheeler's ethereal voice. It's the best kind of pop music -- beautiful, deep and rich.

It starts off on strong footing: "Summertime" is breezy and catchy ("Romantic Piscean seeks angel in disguise...") before settling into a slower tempo, The majority of the songs -- like the lyrically vivid "Folk Song" and teen-crush anthem "She" -- shimmer in a guitar haze, slower and more pensive.

"Another Flavour" is a bouncy slice of pop-rock, a deviation from the slower tempo of the rest of the album. But the obvious highlight -- though not the catchiest single -- is "Monochrome," a song about watching the first landing on the moon: "And the world is watching with joy/We hear a voice from above and it's history." It's pure magic to listen to.

The lush pop sound of the past two albums is still in "Static and Silence," but there's a bit of deviation in it. It's less ethereal -- a match for Wheeler's changed voice -- more solid and grounded. More mature, in fact. The somberness that has been there since "Reading Writing and Arithmetic" is still in place, but it's less that of the young than of people who have lived as adults.

Wheeler's voice is sweet, as it was before. But she's grown into it a little, sounding richer and fuller and more in control. But that wistful tinge is still there, even when singing songs that just focus on love in cold cities. While the tone is mellower, the Sundays haven't lost their songwriting knack: "Summer sky and a throat bone dry/And the fields are all gold/Dusty lane with a song in my brain/And it stoned me to my soul."

The shimmering guitar work, something the Sundays are known for, is given more texture with stuff like brass and live drums. That texture adds to the achy-yet-full-bodied sound of the music. And the guitar riffs sound a bit more rhythmic, rather than airy and fluid.

The Sundays' third album is a sweet, fragile, achy collection of memorable pop songs. It's a bit less dreamy and a little more forward, but the five-year absence only added maturity to their sound.

A funkier, more fun Sundays than usual.
Blind was The Sundays' best album thanks to its ethereal beauty and rich soundscapes, and Reading, Writing & Arithmetic the band's biggest success, but Static & Silence contains the sunniest of Sundays tracks, "Summertime". Basically a breezy three-chord wonder with synth effects, a vibrant beat and a lovely but playful lyric ("Romantic Piscean seeks angel in disguise...Liverpudlian lady seeks sophisticated male..."), and Harriet Wheeler with her most coy, good-humoured vocal performance to date. This was one of the best songs of 1997 and was criminally overlooked; about half a dozen people have asked me what it was, not knowing the band, the song or the album.

There are still the breathtakingly beautiful Sundays moments and involving textures aside from the fun factor: "Folk Song", "Homeward", "She" and "When I'm Thinking about You" shimmer with the usual ringing guitars, the Wheeler croon, and gentle but never timid backbeat. This album represents a grown-up Sundays (Harriet and David Gavurin had a baby in the five years between Static & Silence and Blind), and they're all the better for it, with a greater degree of ease, maturity, and melodic sense than ever.

A Modern Classic. Perfection on a plastic disc.
I can't say enough good things about this album. I was a bit put off by the extremely pop nature of the first single, Summertime. I took a chance and bought the record anyway and I'm so glad I did. Nearly every song on the record will get under your skin and they're all so gorgeous. I am fascinated by the concept of perfection in pop music and this album is THE epitome. The songwriting, the production and performance are all flawless. Static and Silence is so brilliant it virtually glows. If you could open a window to heaven I am certain this is what you would hear.