Can't Be Sure
| "Can't Be Sure" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by The Sundays | ||||
| from the album Reading, Writing and Arithmetic | ||||
| B-side | "I Kicked a Boy", "Don't Tell Your Mother" | |||
| Released | January 1989 | |||
| Recorded | 1989 | |||
| Genre | Indie pop, dream pop | |||
| Length | 3:22 | |||
| Label | Rough Trade | |||
| Writer(s) | David Gavurin, Harriet Wheeler | |||
| Producer(s) | The Sundays, Ray Shulman | |||
| The Sundays singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Can't Be Sure" was the 1989 debut single by the British indie pop group The Sundays.[1][2] It was the first (and in the UK, only) single to be released from their album Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, which appeared a year later. The B-side was "I Kicked a Boy", which also appeared on the album. The 12" single contained an additional, non-album track, "Don't Tell Your Mother".
The song's lyrical theme is "desire", treated as a general concept rather than being directed towards anything or anyone in particular.[3]
- And did you know desire's a terrible thing?
- The worst that I can find
- Did you know desire's a terrible thing?
- But I rely on mine.
By the song's closing refrain, the song's narrator appears to have come to terms with, if not necessarily resolved, the dichotomy:[3]
- And it's my love, And it's my life
- And though I can't be sure if I want any more
- It will come to me later.
The single was voted number one in John Peel's Festive Fifty for 1989 and reached #45 in the UK charts in February of that year.[4][5]
References
- ↑ Gavin Stoker (chapter author) (1999). Peter Buckley, ed. The Rough Guide to Rock (2. ed., expanded and complety rev. ed.). London: Rough Guides. p. 1034. ISBN 9781858284576. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
- ↑ Martin C. Strong (2004). The Great Rock Discography (7th ed.). New York: Canongate U.S. p. 1486. ISBN 9781841956152. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
- 1 2 Mason, Stewart. "Can't Be Sure - The Sundays". Allmusic. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
- ↑ "BBC - Radio 1 - Keeping It Peel - Festive 50s - 1989". BBC. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
- ↑ "Sundays | Artist". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 25 September 2012.