The House of Love: The House of Love (PolyGram); The Sundays: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic (Geffen)

ENGLAND BREEDS pop sensations almost as efficiently as the American suburbs birth thrash metal bands. And there's a time delay: American cultural ambassadors like Anthrax parachute into Britain only after they've got everything but their own Saturday morning cartoon over here, while English Next Huge Things like the House of Love and the Sundays row ashore in Brooklyn just as the third or fourth backlash against them is blossoming in London. Besides this hype-lag, British bands in America are battling a different musical etiquette here. Of these two very English bands, the House of Love may be too polite for their own good, but the Sundays use delicate reserve as their launch pad.