The House Of Love – Babe Rainbow

Was your life ever just somewhere else and you missed an album, only to find it years later and it simply blew you away. Such was my discovery of Babe Rainbow. And right now, as I write, with my speakers at more volume then I care to it, I’m in heaven.

Babe Rainbow came on the heels of two of the finest albums in my collection from House Of Love, and is a splendid continuation of their saga. With each outing, this band managed to not so much redefine themselves, but take surefooted steps in their sonic adventure of song writing, lyrics and the recording process, bringing a freshness to the nature of their musical beings. While House of Love have an emancipated sound that is unique to them and them alone, there's a steady progression of the learning process and this album is no exception. All that House of Love have experienced, all that challenges them, all that has intersected in their lives is brought forth in the recording studio, with the result being intoxicatingly romanic neo-psychedelic music created to wash over you like the shimmering colours of a warm afternoon’s sunset.

I’m not going to go into the flawless guitar work, or the little hidden eggs that pop up at unexpected junctures to surprise you, or that this album feels that it has stepped into a space that is a bit more clear, or that the lyrics have an intelligence to them, or that nothing has been left to chance, you can read all of that in my other reviews for House Of Love.

What I am going to say is that this band was one of the most psychedelic of the neo-psychedelic bands that came out during this period. Groups such as Jesus Jones and The Stereophonic’s, who hit it big and then died with the Manchester Music Scene copied House Of Love’s style and production. That being said, House of Love have never lost themselves, even with all that was happening around them, they simply got back together, content to just be themselves, knew what they had to offer and went on producing some of the finest hypnotic intoxicatingly harmonic dream-laden music of all time.

I completely missed this one at the time and I can’t say I’m sorry I did. If I hadn’t, then I probably wouldn’t be feeling as cool as I do at this minute, lost in these swirling guitars that play off each other, the vocals that rise and fall, only to become intertwined with the instrumentation to the point where it's impossible to tell where one begins and the other leaves off. This is a very personal immersive and impressive piece of music. So if you somehow sidestepped this release, please take my word for it, Babe Rainbow is an amazing collection of songs.

Review by Jenell Kesler