2-CD: 9842929
RELEASED: 2006
LABEL: Universal

Disc: 1
01. Destroy The Heart
02. Nothing To Me
03. Plastic
04. Blind
05. Hedonist
06. Don't Turn Blue
07. Safe
08. Love In A Car
09. In A Room
10. Beatles And Stones
11. Christine
12. Loneliness Is A Gun

Disc: 2
01. Se Dest
02. 32nd Floor
03. Love II
04. Into The Tunnel
05. Fade Away
06. High In Your Face
07. Cruel
08. Burn Down The World
09. Crush Me

The latest excellent series of BBC sessions releases brings us the U2 that never were, the House of Love. Now expanded to a double-disc format in order to include the post-Bickers appearances for the first time. His presence is definitely felt throughout the opening CD, in the playful use of an alternative guitar line for 'Destroy the Heart' and tearing through an early, looser conception of 'Hedonist.' The most dramatic deviation from the norm, however, is part of the closing acoustic session from April '89. The densely layered 'Christine' is converted from a cloud of ringing guitars into a far lighter, laidback affair. It's different, but it works a treat. Others like 'Beatles and the Stones' or 'Loneliness Is A Gun' were semi-acoustic in nature to begin with, and so already flow seamlessly in such an enterprise. The gloriously lengthy maelstrom that forms 'Into the Tunnel' could make a convincing pitch for 'best thing on the whole collection.' When heard in the right light, anyway. Eleven elevating minutes, starting slow and spacey but culminating in an all-engulfing chaos. 'Crush Me' and '7.45 AM' are no slouches in the department of excellence either. Really, what more could one want?

Influences / Similar Artists:
The Ocean Blue, For Against, The Smiths, Blue Aeroplanes