House of Love: unjustly neglected?

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/The-House-of-Love-She-Paints-Words-in-Red.jpg

The brand-new album from The House of Love will be titled She Paints Words in Red and is expected to be released in March or April on Cherry Red Records, according to an announcement on the band’s Facebook page that also revealed the cover art for the group’s second post-reunion effort and fifth record overall.

Last week, the House of Love’s page made the surprise revelation that a new album had been completed and delivered “fully mastered and mixed.” A firm release date for She Paints Words in Red has not yet been set, nor has a tracklist been revealed.

The current House of Love lineup features original members Guy Chadwick (vocals, guitar), Terry Bickers (guitar) and Pete Evans (drums), plus new(er) bassist Matt Jury. That lineup recorded and released Days Run Away in 2005 and has toured sporadically in the intervening years, playing, most recently, its only 2012 concert at a festival in Poland last summer.

is it my imagination or is this new HoL album a staggeringly dull piece of work?

reading between the lines thats kinda what the mojo review said.
shame as i thought 'days run away' was not half bad ...

A band that, by all logic, going by my established taste, I should love.

And yet, every time I hear them, it's just uneventful.

And I've tried at least three times, wholeheartedly to appreciate them.

Alas, no.

I thought Days Run Away was great. This new one is not as good.

I thought Days Run Away was great. This new one is not as good.

i agree. there was easily half a classic album there ..

and reading between the ever so polite review in mojo recently, i kinda guessed re the new one.

shame.

oh look, i'm repeating myself ..

I quite like the new one.

So I took a little look back...

http://thequietus.com/articles/13828-the-house-of-love-debut-album

i noticed that! looking forward to reading it later

I saw them (25 after I last saw them) last week at the Lexington in Islington - they were terrific.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3778/10860718564_7f9c40e5a4_z.jpg

25 years, that is.

Only ever saw them play just once back in 1987 when they supported the Mighty Lemon Drops at Southampton Uni - it was just after the release of Shine On the first time round and they still had Andrea in the band (had heard the single on John Peel a few nights before). They were pretty good but I really wished I'd managed to catch them a bit later on too.

Only saw them the once on a US tour opening for Peter Murphy in 1990, so Bickers was already out -- still a good show, though, and I know a lot of folks there for PM who became fans afterward.

I still think that the shows of theirs I saw in 1988 were among the best I've ever seen.

Interviewed them last year. Chadwick is a very prickly fella.

I must be listening to the butterfly album for 25 years now and it never grows old. I cant understand the complaints (besides the odd crap lyric, perhaps) about it upthread

I never dug "Babe Rainbow" tho except for "Feel"

Chadwich was what, pushing 60 when the first House of Love record came out? That might've hamstrung their ability to be popular darlings.

So what is he now, 85?! Cmon.

'Shine On' remains an absolutely killer single.

Is there any truth to the story of one member of the band being thrown out of a moving car circa their initial breakup?

That's Terry Bickers. November 30, 1989. After a gig at Bangor University the previous night, the group were travelling back along the M48. Bickers had been off his tits on mushrooms the previous night, and the rest of the band and crew were sick of him. In the van, Bickers was shouting dialogue from the Exorcist, then started setting fire to banknotes. When they stopped at Aust services, Pete Evans punched Bickers six times in the face, then announced he was leaving the House of Love. He was persuaded to stay only when assured Bickers would be left at the services, and was no longer in the band. But no one was thrown from a moving vehicle.

did you guys see this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG-W4JZXUz8&t=45s

The House Of Love: The Making Of 'The House Of Love' [Album Stories]

No, but I can't wait to watch it! What a lovely band that no-one I know knows.

it's not wildly exciting tbh, but it's good to see them alive and well and it's nice that there's enough interest in them to warrant such a thing. apparently there's like a 5-disc version of the s/t coming out to mark the 30th anniversary, which is probably way more HOL than i really need. and they toured the uk earlier this month, which i totally missed

Well this'll do:

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/the-house-of-love-burn-down-the-world-8cd-box-set/

DISC ONE
THE HOUSE OF LOVE (PLUS)
1 Hannah
2 Shine On
3 Beatles And The Stones
4 Shake And Crawl
5 Hedonist
6 I Don’t Know Why I Love You
7 Never
8 Someone’s Got To Love You
9 In A Room
10 Blind
11 32nd Floor
12 Se Dest
BONUS TRACKS
13 Never (Chocolate Factory Demo)*
14 Beatles And The Stones (Chocolate Factory Demo)*
15 In A Room (Chocolate Factory Demo)*
16 Se Dest (Chocolate Factory Demo)*
17 Someone’s Got To Love You (Chocolate Factory Demo)*
18 Waiting In Water (Chocolate Factory Demo)*
19 Man To Child (Live)*
20 Nothing To Me (Live)*
*previously unreleased

DISC TWO
BABE RAINBOW (PLUS)
1 You Don’t Understand
+2 Crush Me
3 Cruel
4 High In Your Face
5 Fade Away
6 Feel
7 The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes
8 Burn Down The World
9 Philly Phile
10 Yer Eyes
BONUS TRACKS
11 Burn Down The World (Eel Pie Reference Mix)*
12 Cruel (Eel Pie Extended Reference Mix)*
13 Feel (Eel Pie Extended Reference Mix)*
14 Yer Eyes (Eel Pie Reference Mix)
15 Crush Me (Demo)*
*previously unreleased

DISC THREE
AUDIENCE WITH THE MIND (PLUS)
1 Sweet Anatomy
2 Audience With The Mind
3 Haloes
4 Erosion
5 Call Me
6 Shining On
7 Portrait In Atlanta
8 Corridors
9 Hollow
10 All Night Long
11 Into The Tunnel
12 You’ve Got To Feel
BONUS TRACKS
13 Train Song*
14 Into The Tunnel (Alternate)
*previously unreleased

DISC FOUR
A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE (PT 1)
1 Safe
2 Marble
3 D Song ’89
4 Scratched Inside
5 Phone
6 Cut The Fool Down 7 Ray
8 Love II
9 Baby Teen
10 Love III
11 Soft As Fire
12 Love IV
13 No Fire
14 Love V
15 Shake and Crawl (Demo Version 2)
16 No Fire (Demo)
17 Hannah (Demo)
18 Destroy The Heart (Live 1989)
19 Christine (Live 1989)
20 Man To Child (Live 1989)

DISC FIVE
A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE (PT 2)
1 No Fire (Promo Mix)
2 Safe (B-Side Version)
3 Secrets
4 I Can’t Stand It
5 Clothes
6 Rouge
7 Phone (B-Side Acoustic Mix)
8 Scratched Inside (B-Side Mix)
9 Marble (B-Side Mix)
10 Never (12″ Version)
11 The Spy
12 I Don’t Know Why I Love You (7″ Version)
13 Rosalyn
14 Allergy
15 Glorify Me
16 Beatles And The Stones (Single Mix)
17 Purple Killer Rose
18 Tea In The Sun
19 Pink Frost
20 Let’s Talk About You

DISC SIX
A SPY IN THE HOUSE OF LOVE (PT 3)
1 It’s All Too Much
2 Strange Brew
3 Sweet Anatomy (Alternate Version)
4 Kiss The Fountain
5 Third Generation Liquid Song
6 The Last Edition Of Love
7 Love 10
8 Skin 2 Phase 2
9 Shine On (Acoustic)
10 Hope (Acoustic)
11 Hannah (Acoustic)
12 I Don’t Know Why I Love You (Acoustic)
13 Crush Me (Acoustic)
14 The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes (Acoustic)
15 Phillyphile (Acoustic)
16 Fade Away (Acoustic)
17 Baby Teen (Radio Edit)
18 I Don’t Know Why I Love You (7″ Drip Of Rockman Mix)
19 Who by Fire
20 Rock Your Baby
21 Fall In Love With Me

DISC SEVEN
LIVE IN LEICESTER (1990)
1 Hannah
2 I Don’t Know Why I Love You
3 In A Room
4 Beatles And The Stones
5 Nothing To Me
6 Road
7 Plastic
8 Love In A Car
9 Se Dest
10 Never
11 Hope
12 Salome
13 Shine On
14 Christine
15 Man To Child
16 Destroy The Heart
17 I Can’t Stand It
All tracks previously unreleased

DISC EIGHT
LIVE IN LONDON AND NEW YORK (1991-1992)
1 Phone (London)
2 Hannah (London)
3 Love 2 (London)
4 High In Your Face (New York)
5 You Don’t Understand (New York)
6 Burn Down The World (New York)
7 Christine (New York)
8 Feel (New York)
9 Hannah (New York)
10 Shine On (New York)
11 The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes (New York)
12 Cruel (New York)
13 I Don’t know Why I Love You (New York)
All tracks previously unreleased

Also touring in the US again, might have to catch them once more after, what, thirty plus years...

All new lineup for the tour though (no Terry Bickers)

Most unjustly neglected song by this unjustly neglected band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpcY9QyEi10

xpost Pity. Guess that'll never happen for me!