The House Of Love
by The House Of Love
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The House Of Love bestography
The House Of Love is ranked as the best album by The House Of Love.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to The House Of Love on YouTube
The House Of Love track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 79 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
The House Of Love rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 5 hours ago)
| Year | Source | Chart | Rank | Rank Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | thenat | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 94/100 | 1 |
| 2026 |  Taka | Top 100 Music Albums of the 1980s | 78/100 | 5 |
| 2026 |  neilgee | Creation Records | 39/100 | - |
| 2026 |  SingingPeasant96 | Kissing Just For Practice : Indie Pop (Twee & Jangle) | 55/98 | - |
| 2026 | neilgee | Top 47 Music Albums of 1988 | 3/47 | 5 |
| 2026 | shanelovesyou1111 | Top 32 Music Albums of 1988 | 27/32 | 1 |
| 2026 |  covecove | Top 50 Music Albums of 1988 | 10/50 | 4 |
| 2026 | djirons | Top 100 Greatest Music Albums | 100/100 | 1 |
| 2026 |  ExTeaSea | Top 67 Music Albums of 1988 | 56/67 | 1 |
| 2026 |  Tamthebam | Top 100 Music Albums of 1988 | 46/100 | 3 |
| Total Charts: The total number of charts that this album has appeared in. | 113 | |||
| Total Rank Score: The total rank score. | 590 | |||
The House Of Love collection
Showing latest 20 members who have this album in their collection | Show all 46 members
The House Of Love ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 3 ratings for this album. | Show all 117 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 10/15/2026 09:17 | mash | 1,502 | 89/100 |
| ! | 09/19/2026 18:21 |  RasmV | 2,621 | 73/100 |
| ! | 08/20/2026 18:38 | Jorbaa | 742 | 78/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 7% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 75.3/100, a mean average of 74.5/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 75.6/100. The standard deviation for this album is 15.6.
The House Of Love favourites
Showing latest 10 members who have added this album as a favourite | Show all 13 members
The House Of Love forum mentions
BestEverAlbums 10/07/2026 08:00 in Chart of the day (#5458): By JorbaaView latest topic →
imacgill 09/30/2026 23:05 in What album are you listening to? (cont.) neilgee 11/20/2023 16:35 in What album are you listening to right now?View all forum mentions
The House Of Love comments
Top Comments First | Newest First | Positive Sentiment First | Longest Comments First
(Showing comments with any number of votes. Manage Profile)
johnner TOP 100 COMMENTER 01/02/2012 01:20 | #34167 | TOP COMMENT
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The House of Love as well as The Cocteau Twins, Sonic Youth, and My Bloody Valentine fundamentally laid down the foundations for the shoegazer sound on this album. FACT. Something made all the more cruel considering how largely forgotten this album and the band currently are. From the sour downcast wall of sound of opener Christine to the mesmeric and achingingly beautiful undulations of the oceanic Love In a Car (guitarist Terry Bickers on this song in particular has been subsequently ripped off by Ride, Interpol, and numerous countless others) The House of Love is that greatest of rarity - a forgotten classic. I've been hooked on this album since I first heard it over 20 years ago and have yet to grow tired of it. Perhaps, the fact that Guy Chadwick was already 30 by the time he wrote most of the songs allows it to resonate all the more clearly with the 'older' me, whatever, I love this record just as much as I did when I was a teenager and it is my favourite all time album. What else is there to say? Sheer Class.
House of Love's under-appreciated debut achieves something that few albums are able to accomplish by making subtle, beautiful and intelligent music somehow have a raw edge. Despite regular comparison to other shoegazers of their time, there's a certain haunting element to this album that is uniquely HOL. Also the House added touches of Jesus & Mary Chain feedback at key times.
"Christine" is a personal favorite combining minimal, shimmering Gothic romance and feedback-laden swagger then ending with a lilting pop ditty during the fade-out. The understated, delicate "Man To Child" is another great rack. HOL's self-titled debut is simply a gorgeous work of late 80's Inide pop that should not be missed.
Graeme2 TOP 100 COMMENTER 02/25/2021 07:06 | #266680 | TOP COMMENT
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Very good record. Great sound, brilliant vocals and bickers was a wonderfully inventive and inspiring guitarist. When house of love hit the heights on this and other records with tracks like Christine and Shine One, they could take on the world, however a slight criticism would be most of the material didn't hit those standards. Repeated listening does bring out the subtleties and you realise that though not mega classics they probably did release albums worthy of 80s and 90s lists. Could listen to Chadwick vocals and Bickers leads all day.
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