The Way We Were: The Best Of A House 04.85-02.97

“What a great world/What a great time to be here”, Dave Couse, spikily despondent frontman of Dublin’s A House, sang on 1988 single ‘Call Me Blue’. A somewhat spectacular statement of optimism, in hindsight. A House were the, ahem, house band of an earlier version of Dublin, wherein rehearsal studios were derelict rooms connected by sodden carpets and sagging staircases, and a “benefit” gig was where you petitioned the venue manager to set a different door price for people on the dole. Released in conjunction with their (not included here) 2002 football anthem, the rejigged ‘Here Come The Good Times’ (a somewhat ironic choice, given that the original lyric ran “Here come the good times/For a change”), this best-of/rarities collection shows us, hearteningly, that the songwriting-style and sentiment at the core of this most beloved of lost Dublin bands may have gone out of fashion, but hasn’t diminished in style.

At its best, Couse’s pointed caterwaul was the sound of the suitor who knew it was going to end badly before it began, who was planning the getaway even as he approached (‘Kick Me Again Jesus’; ‘Why Me’). As songwriters, A House were exemplary at bedding euphoric melodicism with the kind of bluntly-spoken home truths about disappointment, heartache, and how shit the world is, that, if you held them up to the stereo, would slit your wrists for you. As merciless as Couse was at tearing strips off himself however, he was, conversely, equally gentle toward those more underdoggish, more fragile, than himself (‘Spinster’, ‘Our Love Is Good Enough’). Thus, A House were essentially relentless optimists. They were never cynical or distant or “cool”. They’d be eaten alive today.

A lot of the turns of phrase display a quasi-Joke Song artlessness peculiar to the time: viz ‘The Comedy Is Over’, or list songs like ‘Small Talk’ and the literally deathless ‘Endless Art’. But as befits a band whose albums rarely had a duff track on them, this collection is a delight from start to finish, gorgeous proof of how good they really were. Nearly-forgotten highlights include the gentle, glittering ‘Just Because’ (1996), of whose bittersweet falsettos and elegiac swells Brian Wilson would be proud, and great lost list song ‘I Love You’, featuring the selfsame phrase repeated over a sample from ‘Lust For Life’, counterpointed by a chorus that gaily singsongs (with typical A House pessimism) “Do you mean/do you mean/do you mean it?”

So who woulda thought it: several years and movements and Celtic wotsits later, A House’s gift for sweet-and-sour melody and optimistic pessimism stand up. Thus the underdog triumphs in the end, after a fashion – or, as the liner notes have it, “Play this loudly, because we all know what it’s like to write a letter to God and get no reply.”