THE HOUSE OF LOVE Best Of (Fontana)

Contemporaries of The Stone Roses and The La's, The House Of Love seemed to have factored themselves out of the equation when the talk is of classic British guitar bands through a combination of internal bickerings, record company-related strife and the prevailing trend winds. This "Best Of" CD draws from all their four studio albums, adding a few relevant A and B-sides along the way. As such it's possibly the perfect vehicle for rediscovering The House Of Love's unfairly ignored genius: there are just too many moments of six-string delicacy here that make much of the first Stone Roses album look like a work of ham-fisted thuggery. How about "Destroy The Heart", for a kick off - all of it, from Terry Bickers' adrenaline rush guitar fade-in to the chorus line "I need her more than I need air"? Or the swamp fog melancholy of "The Beatles And The Stones" who "Sucked the marrow out of bone/Made it good to be alone"? I could