The House of Love: OPO

It's always come down to two songs for me: "Christine" and "Love in a Car" (going with the latter tonight)

Love In A Car shimmers to one of the most beautiful codas in a genre that specializes in them. I think people used to compare Coldplay to Radiohead so much because - aside from the fact their lead singers kinda look alike - both bands liberally took late 80s/early 90s Creation bands like the House of Love and Ride et al. as early touchstones for their own sound.

This song in particular, at least for me, peaks about as high as Radiohead at their best as well as outclasses Coldplay's strongest efforts at melancholic walking-through-the-park-at-night songs (Yellow, The Scientist).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN3_Np6PUsg

^

'Don't Know Why I Love You', maybe; that amazing LP is their best anyway. 'In A Room' for instance is spellbinding also.

although i absolutely adore the vocals in christine and the loosened-string guitar solo in the original shine on

xpost

"Love In a Car" is up with "Destroy the Heart" for me. I think they have a fine line between being transcendent and falling short often.

Destroy the Heart

'Nothing To Me' will most likely get overlooked here, but I just wanted to rep for it anyhow.

Almost everything they recorded with Terry Bickers is worthwhile, and a good proportion of it is simply brilliant. They were incredible live at that point, too - even playing to nearly empty rooms they were jaw-dropping.
Christine
Destroy the Heart
Shine On (original)
Blind
Salome
Road
Love in a Car
all brilliant

'blind' is just lovely

"The Girl With The Loneliest Eyes" melts me every time...

the interest in answering thisthread peaked when i read house of love in the title. it diminished to 0 when i saw coldplay mentioned. how can anyone mention those two bands in one phrase. not sure you did but my answer is beatles and the stones right now but there are about twenty other possible others depending on my mood. christine isn't it, usually.

how can anyone mention those two bands in one phrase.

Love in a Car always sounded like proto-Coldplay to me. Coldplay has been known to nick stuff from Creation bands (In My Place is a blatant rip-off of Dreams Burn Down by Ride, Yellow sounds like a take on the Boo Radleys' Lazarus or MBV's Only Shallow)

love in a car is probably the song by the house of love i like the least. it does not sound like the house of love. the house of love is about acoustic guitars and hooklines. love in a car misses the melodic melancholic wonder of the great songs of the house of love.

Toughie. As much as I'm pulled toward "Christine" or "Destroy the Heart," I'm going to go with "Hannah," the opening cut on the butterfly album.

the house of love is about acoustic guitars and hooklines. love in a car misses the melodic melancholic wonder of the great songs of the house of love.

Can't square this madness with "they're nothing like Coldplay".

Impossible to choose just one:

Shine On ('87 vers.)
Nothing To Me
Christine
Destroy the Heart
Mr. Jo
Safe (single vers.)

I'm not really familiar with much Coldplay at all, but the few songs I have heard totally lacked any of the Stones-ish swagger that a lot of House of Love songs had (Hedonist, Never, Sulphur etc). Listened to the Creation album this afternoon, and I'd forgotten how kickass stuff like Salome was. Coldplay remind me more of a watered-down version of the dodgy fifth Bunnymen album.

Wish I could find the first video for 'Christine' online, simple stark b&w footage of them sitting in front of a window, fringes hanging over faces, bobbing heads bent over guitars, hands bashing out the same chord forever. So good.

Anyhow, the wife reckons the best House of Love song was the one by East 17.

Kicking myself for not posting that vid first.

A good proportion of stuff they didn't record with Terry Bickers is brilliant too. Apart from the lolful 1994 album, but even that's got a couple of good tunes on it.

I really struggle to pick a single tune. If I had to pick one, I'd probably pick Christine, but then to pick something a bit more interesting, I might pick "Tea in the Sun" from the Girl with the loneliest eyes EP.

'Love In A Car' - Peel Sessions version. Inescapably redolent of A-levels revision.

I would probably choose all seventeen version of The Beatles and the Stones.

Actually I would choose Destroy the Heart.

Kicking myself for not posting that vid first

just came into this thread to do just that. Foiled!

sticking my neck out for "Marble"

how wrong am i for thinking that they were a sort of inferior version of the church?

anyway, i always liked "shine on"

[i]the house of love is about acoustic guitars and hooklines[i]

Eh? The House of Love's best stuff is about fiery electric guitars. "Pyrotechnics" was undoubtedly an oft-used word first time around. I was at the Leeds Irish Centre gig in 1988 that John Peel reviewed for the Observer, saying: "There are so many moments of spooky, elusive beauty in the songs and in the playing but you can't allow your attention to wander for a second. This is one of those rare performances that I wished I could have taken away with me.”

There were maybe 50 people there, in a room that held getting on for 1,000, but they were simply staggering. Couldn't take your eyes off Bickers.

Love in A Car

Cool band, always got the most mileage out of "In a Room"

I think Destroy The Heart is a fine choice and it's the first one I might think of to nominate, but I also have a special affection for Yer Eyes.

Man, the band's reunion album is one of my all time favorite great reunion albums from bands I didn't think had it in them.