The first time I came across The House of Love was whilst reading music magazine Q. These guys are probably the only good thing I have ever got from reading that dreadful magazine, and they weren't even being reviewed or featured- they were mentioned briefly in passing in John Niven's column (the best thing in that magazine).
I got hold of a couple of their songs- "Christine" and "Beatles and the Stones" and just adored them. I immediately thought that they were simpply brilliant songs- fantastically written, great choruses and guitar parts. But more listens made me feel and see an aesthetic and quality about the band that I just loved. Something really individual and compelling.
Their heyday was 1988-1993 and their sound is really firmly grounded in late 80s British indie music, and they sound really pre-emptive of shoegaze and Britpop groups like Blur, Suede and Pulp. They came a little too late for the 80s indie scene and a little too early for Britpop and ended up overshadowed by grunge, so their lack of acclaim and publicity isn't inexplicable but is still tragic. They've got that wonderfully articulate, slightly wonky British-ness inherited from The Kinks which went on to be shared by Blur and a couple of other Britpop bands. These guys deserved so much more success and a much wider audience. They're not even one of these old UK indie bands who have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years!
Most of the material I listen to from them is from their second album The House of Love, which is confusingly the same title as their first album. It's sometimes known as "The Butterfly Album". I bought it after buying a John Peel compilation which featured the song "Destroy the Heart". It's not on the album, but gave me a kick up the backside to buy it!
I really haven't looked back since I bought their second album, it really is a fantastically good. There's so much to love about it. The songwriting is brilliant- choruses can be massive, the lyrics are clever and really heartfelt. The vocal delivery from frontman Guy Chadwick is just so spot on-- it's got that kind of lazy but involved quality. The guitar parts can shimmer and twinkle as well as pound and thunder.
My favourite is undoubtedly "Beatles and The Stones". It's such a sentimental track, the chorus is just sublime and really wormed its way into my mind and I've been singing it under my breath for months. The lyrics are just fantastic, and I think Guy Chadwick does an amazing job as he takes two bands who are so engrained in history that they can become distant and lose their emotional resonance and connectivity, and blows that distance away and makes the impact those two bands had on him clearly and beautifully felt in one of my favourite lyrics of all time- "The Beatles and the Stones/ Sucked the marrow out of bones/ Put the V in Vietnam/ The Beatles and The Stones made it good to be alone/ To be alone".
Put simply, this is great guitar music and I think The House of Love are one of the most under appreciated bands of the past 25 years. If you like Blur, The La's, Pulp or Suede these guys should stir similar chords, and the same if you like other kinds of thoughtful indie guitar music. Videos below, I hope you enjoy and buy some of their brilliant music.
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