The Sundays: Reading, Writing & Arithmetic (1990)

This album was such a breath of fresh air when I first picked it up back in 1990. I was in a bit of a musical malaise -- stuck in law school without access to a steady flow of new releases as I'd had back at the college radio station; indie rock seemingly adrift after the high watermark of R.E.M. and the Replacements and Husker Du and all the other bands I'd discovered in the mid-80s. The new shoegaze stuff I was discovering was cool, but dark.  But this was a delightful bit of ethereal...