London 0 Hull 4 (London 0 Hull 4 - Housemartins)

Member Name: davepridd

Product:	London 0 Hull 4 - Housemartins
Date:	11/09/00 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Variety of material, singing, lyrics

Disadvantages: Few

This is a remarkable album, especially when you think about the rest of the music scene was doing back in 1986, loads of glamorous groups with a keyboard led sound were dominating the charts. However the Housemartins were a traditional guitar group made up by four men who looked like students and lived in Hull.

Despite mainly sticking to a guitar, bass and drums format with singer Paul Heaton sometimes playing guitar, harmonica or trombone, it is a very ambitious album, but unlike the usual rock experimentation with classical music, on some tracks the Housemartins refer to gospel music and soul. This may be central to the album's appeal but it is probably also central to the group breaking up as guitarist Stan Cullimore wanted a heavier guitar sound whereas Paul Heaton wanted piano and brass, and of course eventually broke away to form the Beautiful South.

The album opens at a frantic pace with the best known Housemartins song 'Happy Hour', with jangling guitars and vocal which is so fast it almost turns into a rap, it just as quickly finishes 2 minutes later but sets up the standard for the album of 60s style melodies and harmony, and witty, political lyrics. The pace continues for the quite similar 'Get up off your knees' but here the backing is louder and the message more aggressive. 'Flag Day' is track three and was the first single released off the album but only reached number 126 in the charts, it is quite simple in structure with most of the song being just Paul Heaton singing with piano backing, but it has quite a melancholy feel like 'the 2 of us' by Suede and it is a tense, dramatic vocal performance.

'Anxious' and 'Over there' are very clean sounding pop songs, perhaps not as exciting as the rest of the material here, but still very good. 'Reverends Revenge' and 'The mighty'ship', are very fast paced instrumentals with Paul Heaton delivering manic harm
onica solos over the top, the sound is quite harsh and might not be to everyone's taste. 'Freedom' and 'Sitting on a fence' both have quite heavy guitar, and are certainly more based in rock than pop, but still manage to be melodic with the vocals still being at the front of the mix.

After 'Freedom', however, the mood changes completely, with this feeling like Paul Heaton's part of the album; first we get 'I'll be your shelter' with gospel choir and perhaps one of Paul's best ever vocals. The album finishes with 2 a cappela cover versions 'People get ready' and 'He ain't heavy, he's my brother', which are fantastic and show what a talented band the Housemartins were being able to switch from loud rock to intricate vocal harmonising in the space of a few songs.

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