Days Run Away

by

The House of Love

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After The House of Love left Creation and moved to the Fontana label in 1990, I lost interest in the band. They became over-produced and began to sound as if another mega-super-labels (Phonogram/Polygram) attempt to create (sic) a major Pop icon. As usual, when corporates stick their hand in the broth, the project failed because of a missing ingredient, the publics interest. The original HOL had an amazing clean sound that originally turned on so many early fans, but as with most other rock and roll stories, the band was consumed by big business and the original vision was lost and the band faded away. Many fans felt this band should have been huge, like in the Radiohead, Oasis vein, but it wasn't to be.

Now, the original line-up has returned and has issued Days Run Away. Without sounding too presumptuous, I think this is an incredible Pop album. Though only 10 songs and 37 minutes long, this is some of the most amazing and fresh pop sounding music that I've heard in ages. If only the local Mega-Rock radio station (WCCC) would drop its funereal Rap-Metal format and start playing Rock music like this, then new fans can discover this new fresh sounding music. I love it, but I refuse to catagorize it or try to describe what it sounds like, because I feel that naming sound alike artists or bands would pidgeon-hole this unique sounding band too much. Guitars, bass, and drums are the intruments used and musical and song writing talent (by frontman Guy Chadwick) is all you need to know.

Days Run Away is reminiscent of the bands Creation label days but also reveals a more experienced song writer in Mr. Chadwick. Right now only the UK pressing is available. Don't wait for a US release. Don't download it. Go buy it.

As comeback albums go, "Days Run Away" is better than most. The interplay between the musicians is real and natural, rather than just an imitation of the House of Love's earlier work. Having original guitarist Terry Bickers back in the lineup seems to have revitalized the band's sound. Yet somehow, the end result is not particularly memorable. Although I bought this album two years ago and have listened to it a fair number of times, I had to listen to it again, closely, in order to write this review, as if I was studying for a test. The songs just don't stick.

The one glaring exception is the opener, "I Love You Too Much," which is prime House of Love and could easily pass for a lost single from the band's early days. In fact, it is so simple, straightforward, and punchy that it sounds as if it could have predated "Shine On." Maybe this song is the one that inspired the reunion, and for those who love the band as much as I do, it singlehandedly makes this a worthwhile disc to have in one's collection.

There are other good moments as well, but they don't really last. The songs never seem to hit that extra gear that they so often did in the early days. And the absence of original bass player Chris Groothuizen does not go unnoticed. The new guy is fine, but he is clearly just a backing musician and does not play a strong role in shaping the songs, as his predecessor so often did.

The production is strictly no-frills, which was probably the best way to go this time around, but the band forfeits a lot by foregoing keyboards and atmospherics. In one of their more adventurous moments, they take a stab at a country-type sound, for the first time ever, in "Already Gone," without embarrassing themselves at all. But on the other hand, the song utterly fails to stand out from its undistinguished companions.

Still, if "Days Run Away" proves to be the last House of Love album, it is a better closing statement than the dreary "Audience with the Mind," and it's better than Guy Chadwick's 1997 solo album as well. For these small things, we are thankful, and despite this album's flaws, I'm not going to complain about having one more House of Love album to listen to.