Irish rock history is littered with hard luck stories, of bands who really should have made it but were denied by a philistine music industry and the cruel hand of fate. Most of the time it's self-pitying nonsense - but in the case of A House it actually happens to be true. Dave Couse and co. really did have it all, grace, style and a talent for sparky guitar pop that showed up most of their contemporaries as the bunch of chancers they were. Now, comes this beautifully packaged retrospective - and happily, it's the perfect way to remember them. Released on the back of the adoption of 'Here Come The Good Times' as the official Irish World Cup song, its 19 tracks represent a neat summary of the band's entire career, with a bonus disc of rarities thrown in to keep diehard fans happy. Like the Irish team itself, it's hard not to dream about what might have been instead of celebrating what was actually achieved. But every underdog has its day - and this is undoubtedly theirs.
It is a rare and welcome thing to encounter a group from Dublin who have not been artistically paralysed by the long shadows cast by U2. Unlike most of their lrish musical contemporaries, A House seem to have misspent their youth gazing across the lrish Sea towards the Northwest Frontier of Manchester and Liverpool, soaking up the rich vein of heavy, atmospheric pop emanating from such groups as the Echo and The Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes and New Order. A House have absorbed these influences on this strikingly confident debut LP, and channelled them into a potent and original sound. Aware of the beauty of brevity, these songs crackle with a manic energy and a raw, naked anger. From the scatterbrained folk punk of Violent Love to the sonic blast of Stone The Crows, Fergal Bunbury weaves a tangled web of carousing, rasping and colliding guitars, whilst singer David Couse's voice cruises through the carnage, dripping with the tarnished innocence of the defrocked chorister. The songs suggest that this house is not a happy one-the lyrics are pregnant with menace, grinding axes indiscriminately into the heads of Church, State, politicians and Stock, Aitken and Waterman.