Customer Reviews

The House Of Love

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"I don't why I love you, your face is a hammer in my head; I remember every word you said, I just don't know why I love you..." is the lyric from track #6 on this amazing album.

There are about 6 high quality songs on this album. The music on this album is filled with depth and layers of musical and conceptual ideas. The lyrics are mad and that's what makes the songs so special.

For example, in the song, "The Beatles and the Stones", in the introduction, you hear faintly in the background the intro to "All You Need is Love" and then this is juxtaposed with the lyric: "Look at you, shouting out, loud as thunder out to sea, you want the bomb, and so do we, a bomb from the sky is the perfect crime, shoulder on shoulder in heat...." yet the music to these violent metaphors is pleasantly melancholic and nostalgic in nature.

There are many brilliant musical and lyrical ideas throughout this album. There's an incredible mania in the song "in a room" which lyrically appears to be the depiction of a man gone crazy in his drunken stupor of emotional infatuation. "and I can't slow down, and I can't slow down...."

If you're into deep, sarcastically dry, intelligent, insane, and mature lyrical content and do not mind the post punk new wave and alternative rock sound that's similar to Echo and the Bunnymen, you'll go pleasantly mad listening to these tracks over and over again.

What an album. What songs.

The "Butterfly Album" is the end of one of the best indie bands of the last decade. After "The House of Love" recorded for Creation Records this was what everyboy wasn't expecting, a better record than the landmark that "The House of Love" was. Guy Chadwick's lyrics are better and more introspective, the guitars became more important in expressing the feelings contained in the lyrics. The band had great live performances, and after a top ten in Britain, they disappeared from the pop scene. This record remains as something unique that should had continued. It's a "candy" but with a bitter taste, because we can't hear some news from them,although candies are always tasteful. I will listen to this record for a long, long time.

Everyone else may call it the Fontana House of Love album, but I always refer to it as "the Butterfly Album" because of the cover art. This is a thoroughly excellent album of thoughful guitar pop. It ranges from the atmospheric "Hannah", to the introspective "Blind", to the hammering "I Don't Know Why I Love You". The stand out track for me has always been "Se Dest" for the wonderful instrumental part in the middle of the song. While other CD's gather dust from disuse, the "Butterfly Album" stays on steady rotation in my house, and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.

Amazingly great groups miss the mark for a variety of reasons, but one of those reasons should never be because an album has no name. Such is the tragic case of The House Of Love, who's initial outing was self titled, as was their second release ... which also went by the name "The Butterfly Album," "The Beatles And Stones Album," and if that weren't enough, it was also referred to as the "Fontana Album," which was the name of their recording label.

So they missed the mark with the name thing ... no big deal. What was a big deal was the sound that came from this unknown band, who here on their second outing found their stride, and laid out a space on the time line of neo psychedelic music that belongs to them alone. Before the tensions of drugs were to shatter the founding members of this band, the lineup read thus, Guy Chadwick on [Guitar and Vocals], Terry Bickers [on Guitar], Chris Groothuizen [on Bass], Andrea Heukamp [on Guitar and Vocals] and Pete Evans [on Drums]. Together, these guy gave us some of the very best psychedelic music of all time ... yes, of all time ... listen to "In A Room," I'm breathless just listening to it as I write.

The music is thick, lush, swirling, tempting, dark and deep, with a resonance that flows into and out of you at the same time. Single notes have the feel of lasting for minutes, while the lyrics grab a hold and tempt you with their complexity, demanding your attention, and holding it from the first to the last chord on this album. There is a contextual flow to this release, drawing deeply from the sounds, visions, and sensibilities born from those heady warm summer days and cool nights of the mid 1960's. It's easy to forget how good this record is ... that's why it will always have a place of prominence in my music library.

I happened to see them on tour, in support of this album, in a really small club in Philadelphia, I managed to speak with them prior to the show and was totally unprepared for what was to come. Their swirling guitars, overlaid with other swirling guitars, blending and bending one song into the next, all to a driving rhythm that just won't stop ... and if that weren't enough, it was all set to a dazzling light show that tripped me right back to my days at the Fillmore in San Francisco during the 60's.

Sometimes I feel that I was waiting for this album my whole life, I just had to get to that point in 1990 to have it all realized ... this album answers every musical need I ever had.

The Beatles and the Stones
Sucked the marrow out of bone
Put the V in Vietnam
The Beatles and the Stones
Made it good to be alone
To be alone ...

This band has to be one of the most underrated of late 80s and 90s (and the same goes for The Chameleons), and the same goes for this CD. I heard it back in the 90s on college radio and was an instant fan. With soothing vocals, melodic guitar overlays and catchy lyrics, House of Love produces both mellow and upbeat tunes. Every album of theirs has more than a handful of songs that you will love, but this CD is almost all like that. A great cd from a great band.

This is the best band in the world. If you like The Origin, Stoneroses, Oasis, Ocean Blue, James, etc.. then get this CD too.

I had this CD stolen by my little sister (now 19). I started listening to this one in high school and bought the 3 other House of Love albums. This is the best one, and it's got everything from alone music to baby-making music. A must. A necessity. Simply great, and it's not at all an acquired taste.