Earlier this summer, Cherry Red Records offered up Burn Down The World: The Fontana Years: 1989-1993, an 8-CD box set of the major label output of The House of Love. The band, poised for greatness from early singles on Creation Records like "Christine" and "Destroy the Heart", didn't entirely successfuly navigate their shot at mainstream acceptance. Those albums yielded some real gems, and at least one perfect record in 1990's The House of Love (the one with the butterfly), but the group, under the leadership of Guy Chadwick was just too stubborn to become U2, and audiences were just perplexed, I think, at the big sound but intimate mood of the tunes. The group returned in 2005, members left, things moved forward, until now, with a new iteration of the group prepping an original record here in 2022.
With Guy Chadwick the main constant now, and fewer and fewer ties beyond his distinctive voice to the glory days of The House of Love, A State of Grace requires a bit of patience from long-time fans. The first half of this Cherry Red release is engaging, with "Hey Babe" being a sweet bit of business, and "Clouds" serving up a nice fire that echoes older gems like "Hedonist", even if faintly. "Into the Laughter" not only recalls the Nineties pleasures from this group, but almost betters them. A winning melody rides a supple hook and a fan is briefly taken back to wherever he or she was when Babe Rainbow (1992) dropped 30 (!) years ago. Similarly, you can almost hear an echo of the hook from "Beatles and the Stones" in "In My Mind", one of the real highlights here.
What's likely to alienate devotees, however, are the tunes here that seem inspired by the kind of English blues rock I gave up listening to when I found cool stuff like Creation Records bands almost 40 years ago. I mean, there's a harmonica on "Sweet Loser" for Crissakes! Similarly, "Dice are Rolling" didn't work for me on any level, and seemed a real low point for Chadwick's skills as a performer. I went into this wanting to love A State of Grace, because why wouldn't I? My listening life was transformed by "Christine" and the first album in 1988. But this isn't the same thing.
The pleasures are modest here, and Guy's likely not looking to "Burn down the world" anymore, nor trying. But I have an enormous affection for this guy's talents, and he still has a way as a singer and player of hitting a mood with a minimum of effort, for a maximum of force. A State of Grace serves up a few of those moments, and despite the parts I didn't love, there's enough here for me to recommend the record.
A State of Grace is out tomorrow via Cherry Red Records.
[Photo: The House of Love Facebook]