11 March 2014

THE HOUSE OF LOVE


1988's self titled The House Of Love LP was an absolutely essential piece of my Oklahoma high school life. Perfectly dreary British alternative pop music, but they were somehow darker than bands like THE OCEAN BLUE and you couldn't dance to them like you could STONE ROSES but they were nowhere near as cool as MORRISSEY, which made them way cooler. That album's opening track "Christine" is still a desert island song for me, the perfect realization of a wall of guitars and vocals possess a stoic confidence. This collection from 1990 ties up some loose ends left by the band's first few releases - some tracks from scrapped sessions, some early demos, but mostly it's some amazing Britpop before the term could deem a band virtually unlistenable.  It blew my mind (still does) that bands like this could be Top 10 fodder over there while we were being flogged by Vanilla Ice and Garth Brooks....but such was humanity back then. "Ray," "Scratched Inside" and the "Love" series are the standouts here, but it's "Shine On (the second mix)" that makes the whole download mandatory. Granted, pieces of this tape are too mellow for my taste, but I contend that if all pop music were this brilliant then my record collection might be quite a bit different than it is today.



6 comments:

Unknown said...

DO you have anything else from this band!!!!

the wizard said...

Yes...the first two full lengths, both self titled. And both excellent.

Dayna said...

any chance you got mp3s to hold me over till I find the LPs?

Raymon said...

Sorry that was my wifes google acount

the wizard said...

Well then tell your wife that the LPs should be relatively easy to find in used bins around the world, as both we released in the deluge of late '80s/early '90s college/alt rock when every scam indie thought that every release was going to be a smash hit. I haven't rips of the LPs, I waste all of my time ripping cassettes....

Eggs1234 said...

"Christine" is still walking in me! Can't believe I ran into this here. Thanks for posting and bringing back the memories.