CD: 842 293-2
RELEASED: 1990
LABEL: Fontana

01. Hannah
02. Shine On
03. The Beatles and the Stones
04. Shake and Crawl
05. Hedonist
06. I Don't Know Why I Love You
07. Never
08. Someone's Got to Love You
09. In a Room
10. Blind
11. 32nd Floor
12. Se Dest

The House of Love's second self-titled album in a row remains something of a high-water mark in what can loosely be termed U.K. post-punk music, acting as an effective final statement before the onslaughts of Madchester, grunge, and Brit-pop. Starting with the snaky crawl of "Hannah, " sidling in over a series of echoed guitar notes, the 12-song collection does everything from revisiting past heights to scaling new ones. "Shine On" gets re-recorded in an arguably much more powerful performance, Evans' drums and Bickers pounding away out in front, while one early B-side, "The Hedonist, " is turned from a light acoustic number into a evocative modern blues. Another, "Blind, " is changed very little, its simple fragility still holding a soft sway. Everything else is new and quite often stunning, building on the combination of power and emotion from the first album perfectly. "I Don't Know Why I Love You" remains the group's definitive single, three and a half minutes of romantic angst matched by a fiery, perfectly arranged performance. "Beatles and the Stones, " meanwhile, far from being a nostalgia piece, refers to the bands in question as "[making] it good to be alone, " with a rich, melancholic acoustic performance to boot. Add in the fiery performances on songs like "32nd Floor" or "In a Room" and the result is a true lost classic.