The Housemartins
London 0 Hull 4

THE REVIEW

Like a bolt from the blue, this English quartet illuminated the European scene in the second half of the '80s, reviving the glory of the "beat" (term to be taken in the broadest sense) from twenty years earlier, with a freshness and ingenuity unimaginable in that musical period.

What probably made this band unique was the ability to present a way of making songs mostly based on pieces structured around three or four simple electric guitar chords (or just a little more), without effects, set to lively and carefree rhythms, with deadly effective choruses, all enriched by an appealing and instantly catchy soul and rhythm'n'blues streak.

Not that all their repertoire could be traced to these schemes, so much so that the album was preceded by the single "Flag Day", a stunning melodic track with the piano in the spotlight (at the time proclaimed single of the month by some English music magazines), also included on this record. Anticipating Ligabue by twenty years, these cheerful guys from Hull sang the joys of "Happy Hour" with the homonymous track, crafting a classic and a perfect prototype of their style; the video clip of the time showed their playful way of presenting themselves to the audience. On the same irresistible lines, we hear "Get up off our knees", "Anxious", "Sheep", "We're not deep", and if you think writing simple songs is easy, try it, but then make sure you are capable of transmitting this kind of energy and creating this kind of atmosphere so that simplicity doesn't mean banality...

Special mention for "Think for a minute", the most refined and dreamy track, highlighted by a fine guitar arpeggio, which in the subsequent single version was further softened with a delicately "nocturnal" arrangement. There is also the soul track "Lean on me", with almost gospel choirs, and "Freedom" is a great finale, even if the sequence of guitar chords is practically a rip-off of "Everybody needs somebody" by the Blues Brothers!! But they were young.... The journey of The Housemartins was, as they say, "short but intense", as their career lasted two albums, with an amazing single in between ("Caravan of Love", fantastic!), and an anthology with unreleased tracks. Then from this unrepeatable quartet came the Beautiful South, who continued in the line of the more sophisticated aspects of The Housemartins' music, and, imagine that... Fatboy Slim.

Nonetheless, "London 0 Hull 4" is one of the peaks of English pop of that decade. Sorry if that's not much.