- Edited
Been playing this loads recently. I think it is something of a ‘lost classic’. Funny old band the House of Love, led by Guy Chadwick who appears a bit of a strange cat if you listen to his songs. He’d spent much of the 80s driving around London in his day job as a shop fitter whilst fronting unsuccessful bands in his spare time until he broke through into the “indie scene” with the House of Love in 1987. Two previous albums, both of them confusingly self-titled and referred to respectively by fans as ‘the German Album’ (88-on Creation) and ‘the Butterfly Album’ (90 on Fontana) had cemented a strong following and regular forays into the indie chart with songs such as ‘Shine On’, ‘Christine’ and ‘Beatles and the Stones’ progressively bringing them closer to what looked like mainstream success.
The second album got to number 8 in the mainstream album charts but as their popularity grew all was not well within the band. Guitarist Terry Bickers left the band during an intense tour of the second album amidst rumours of drug induced psychosis. He was replaced by Simon Walker who also left part way through the making of Babe Rainbow. Producer Warne Livesey stood in on guitar and even co-wrote a couple of tracks with Chadwick.
Released in July 1992 Babe Rainbow was met with some positive reviews (the one in Select magazine convinced me to buy it) but it was only in the album charts for 2 weeks then disappeared. It looked as if their time had passed. A lot had happened musically since they formed in 86, the Roses had come and gone (for a while) and “the indie scene” was a completely different thing. For whatever reasons, this album is rarely spoken about now which is a shame because I think it is fucking brilliant. They broke up the following year after releasing ‘An Audience with the Mind’ and that was that (until they resurfaced in recent years releasing new material- They toured recently apparently).
1992 was a strange year for me. From 1989 I had been dabbling with drugs but throughout 91 it was pretty much ecstasy or acid & speed every single weekend. Not as much as some of my mates (many of whom are no longer here) but enough for my head to feel a mess. My last pill was on 31st Jan 91 and that was it for years. Well into my 30s anyway. I was having quite severe panic attacks, was convinced I was losing my mind, felt depressed as fuck and stopped going out for the first half of 92. My mum was a worry to me. She had what in retrospect was severe depression. She would sit in an armchair all day long from morning until night just gazing out of the window. I used to try to talk to her about it but I felt hopelessly out of my depth. I was 21 and living in a damp riddled flat with my older brother who had the behavioural patterns of Albert Steptoe. Empty pizza boxes and Chinese take away cartons filled with dog ends were the ornaments of our bleak dwelling. I was working as a fork lift truck driver in a warehouse with an ex-army supervisor who talked to me as if I was really, really stupid. I rarely talked. I read ferociously. Books and music were my solace. This was my last job before I went into full time education the following year, realised I wasn’t that thick and starting enjoying my life again (a bit anyway).
Anyway, enough waffling. On to the album. It came out in the summer of 92 and I loved it. It was one of my chrysalis albums as I went through a lot of changes and basically grew up a bit (alongside Lazer Guided Melodies by Spriritualized, Between 10th and 11th by the Charlatans and Kool Aid by BAD (the UK only version of The Globe and better ). Played this album LOADS over the next few years. I’ve spent too much time writing that I’m just gonna skip through the best songs and let you make of it what you will.
Side 1:
- You Don’t Understand – fantastic opener. Upbeat, sets the scene. Great guitars. Great lyrics “Hunt the tiger and kill the jungle” or “Kiss the fountain and foul the river”. Should be played to every single Tory party member. But they wouldn’t understand.
- Crush Me – Mellow. Ok.
- Cruel – Trippy Eastern vibe. “Hold back from anger and freeze all your soul, dive through the circle describe what you hold”. Yeah. Dig it. Kula Shaker if they were good.
- High in Your Face – Magnificent. Triumphant. Best song on side 1.
- Fade Away – Nice end to side one. Very mellow.
Side 2:
- Feel – Brilliant song. Great production. We’ve all been there right?
- The Girl with the Loneliest Eyes – Exquisite. Luxurious. Peak House of Love. You can dive in it and swim lengths.
- Burn Down the World – Now we’re cooking. I think that the previous one, this and the next song all flow into each other brilliantly and get increasingly strange but increasingly good. First line – “Sideways we’re walking, crustaceans we’re talking, now there’s more to earth than the core”..Yer what lad? I read somewhere that Guy Chadwick was smoking massive amounts of weed whilst making this album and in his own words, sent himself a bit mad. The finale to this song is brilliant.
- Phillyphile – The weirdometer cranks up a notch. What this is about I have no fucking idea but it sounds fantastic. “Hail the clown and crash the car, load the gun and carry on”. Guy-are you ok mate?” There are loads of weird symbols on the inner sleeve. Fuck knows what they mean either.
- Yer eyes – Lovely end to the album. Feels like some sort of redemption. There’s hope.
I suspect that this album won’s get an essential rating by many people. To me it is essential, 9.5 out of 10. That may be because it reminds me a lot of a period where I changed a lot for the better. Musically right up my street. Sixties sounding guitar pop (yes pop) with a psychedelic feel is exactly my cup of tea. Drowsy vocals, lovely harmonies, melodic as fuck and very strong songs. I can hear a lot of other bands in there like the Velvets and JAMC even but the House of Love have their own unmistakable sound. Like I said, this is a lost classic and they should have been a lot bigger. Nice album cover too. I really like that painting by Peter Blake. I read recently that Chadwick re-trained as a carpenter and makes furniture to order for people. He said he wanted to train his hands in such a way that it shocked his mind into thinking differently. Like I said, strange cat.
Hope you enjoy it.
PS -Can someone tell me how to upload the tracks from Spotify please and I will edit this and add them?
