Opening with a glorious horn fanfare, then letting loose with sparkling guitars, this gem is one of the great "forgotten" rock songs of the mostly synthesized '80s. Its LP "A Human Sound" and its predecessor "Eventide" are both worth discovering.
16 Jan 03 ·stevehow: at last some1 with good taste in music!!!!!
gus
ex drummer ...Faith bros 16 Apr 09 ·Willow: I love The Faith Brothers!! Can't believe it is their 25th Anniversary this year! Billy Franks is still going strong and is playing Shepherds Bush Empire on 6 June 09. He always plays a few Faith Brothers songs and his new solo stuff is amazing! Check him out: www.billyfranks.com
Lush, languid progressive new wave with synthesizers, from Vancouver, that seemed to arrive out of the blue in '82. They have a number of other good songs, my personal favourites are "Just Like You" and "Alien Time".
from Worlds Away available on CD - Worlds Away & Back (EMI)
27 Feb 03 ·Colinator: You like 'Just Like You', and so do I, so here are the lyrics:
Just Like You
She closed her eyes and spoke to me
Said 'If you could have seen the things that I have seen'
I've walked the desert of lost souls
Well the moon was late for me last night
But the dawn and I are still alive
She said 'Tell me things I want to hear
Now you're safe and sound and the coast is clear'
I saw her body move with her blue dress on
While the sun cut through venetian blinds
I was her last frontier when she said 'You're mine'
Chorus
We'll love until tomarrow
Chained to your heart I'll follow
And what you ask I'll do
Today I'm just like you
On razor edge you're falling
You're new ice age is calling
I know just what this means
Today you're just like me
I think I've gone too far this time
And I feel that I should change my point of view
Time fades like shadows in the sun
While I stand outside in the pouring rain
If I had the chance I'd do it all again
PS-There are some beggining lyrics not shown that appear only in the remix version, available on the compilation 'Worlds Away and Back'.
My favourite House Of Love song, it's a mid-paced typically guitar-drenched track with an insistent percussive backing and that low ostinato guitar riff with the little flourish in it. It has lots of minor chords which give it a rather gloomy feel (like many of my favourite songs). Actually their later song "Feel", which was one of the '90s best, could be "Shake And Crawl" slowed almost to a literal crawl ...
from The House Of Love (2), available on CD (Fontana)
22 May 03 ·Genza: I liked the House of Love - and 'Christine' is a genre-defining classic. But like many of the other sub-Valentines clones (Chapterhouse, Boo Radleys, etc.), I thought some of their tunes suffered from being slow and uneventful. Like you, I love minor chords - but I think other bands did that multi-layered guitar sound better. But hey, it's just my opinion and all that. 10 Dec 03 ·lobo: The House of Love were brilliant and way ahead of their time, not to mention sadly overlooked in the pages of pop music history. They were hardly "Sub-Valentine Clones" - the band's sound dates back to their origins in 1986. The members of My Bloody Valentine were struggling to define their sound at that point (they were still working through their goth phase!). Guy Chadwick was a masterful songwriter and Terry Bickers was the preeminent guitarist of his time. Nobody knew their way around a stack of effects pedals better than him. Best songs: Safe, Christine, Destroy the Heart, Loneliness Is A Gun... This band's music is nothing short of superb.
This is the sound of ecstasy, the most joyful song to ever hit the charts! Quite unlike the mope-rock of recent decades (although I like the Smiths too). It just rings out, I think because it has a very heavy emphasis on the "dominant" musical tone.
The Association, of course, had several huge hits in the 1966-68 period, like "Cherish", "Windy", and "Never My Love", and the also-wonderful "Along Comes Mary" (their debut), but in my opinion "Everything That Touches You" is definitely their best.
22 May 03 ·konsu: Yes indeed! Birthday is such a great album. I think this one was a minor hit for them, but the rest of this record is just as worthy of exhaltations. Check out the tune "Like Always" as well. Pure genius!! 24 Jun 03 ·tinks: i heart birthday. but then again, i heart the association. even stop your motor. 22 Dec 04 ·ronin: Their interweaving vocal harmonies still blow me away, especially on songs such as this one, my personal fave. "Insight Out" was 1st album we ever purchased independent of parents. "Requiem for the Masses" is another powerful harmonic tour de force. Who sings (not yells) like this anymore? Every member of the group (even Brian!) sang. 14 Apr 05 ·Goes Up To 11: My then-girlfriend (now wife) and I had breakfast with the Association at about 2 am in the Atlanta Hyatt-Regency's coffee shop after a concert at Georgia Tech in 1969 or 1970. Nice guys! Although the Association took a lot of critical heat in the years since, I remember them as extremely professional musicians, able to precisely recreate their complex studio vocal harmonies live in concert. Part of the reason may have been that they were the first band I remember employing a mixing board out in the audience during a concert, something that became standard practice in the industry within a few years afterwards.
The best of the lesser-known "wall of sound" productions from ace producer Phil Spector in the early 1960s. Many people think it's Veronica singing, and indeed it does sound most like the Ronettes, although it's not quite as awe-inspiring as their strongest track "Baby I Love You". I do love the rising strings in the background on the way into the chorus. Lyrically, it's in the "He's A Rebel" vein.
available on CD - Phil Spector's Flips And Rarities
19 Jul 04 ·kwan_dk: Indeed a great song and a terriffic production. The only problem is that it's supposedly not produced by Spector, but by a young aspiring songwriter/producer named Jerry Riopelle who was assigned to Philles Records at the time. Riopelle himself has acknowledged this and other evidence seems to indicate he's right.
As for Veronica singin lead, it has been established that the girl in question was a singer called Charlotte O'Hara, as far as I recall...
