Following their initial singles with a full album might have been a tall order given the excitement they’d already generated, but with their self-titled debut the House of Love delivered beautifully, with ten songs over half an hour that were nearly all miniature masterpieces of rich melody, contemplations of love, life and loss and exquisite performances. It was pretty easy to sense how Guy Chadwick and Terry Bickers were dubbed a new Morrissey/Marr thanks to stellar songs like “Road,” “Man to Child,” the tense “Love In a Car” and the thrilling opener “Christine.”

– Ned Raggett