Pop Music Reviews : House of Love: No Lack of Confidence

With his hollow cheeks and jutting jaw, House of Love singer Guy Chadwick looked something like Sting at the Palace on Friday night. And though the band’s rich, melodic English-rock bears little resemblance to Sting’s music, there was another quality that Chadwick seemed to share with the ex-Policeman: an air of self-confidence, even unapologetic arrogance.

That served Chadwick well at the Palace, where his band was sandwiched between two younger, touted label-mates--the Catherine Wheel (reviewed recently) and Ocean Colour Scene, both of which present younger and harder, though more monochromatic versions of guitar-based English-pop. Not only does Chadwick try to put across music that borrows from the lofty likes of the Beatles and the Stones, but he’s got enough moxie to start off the set with the tribute song “The Beatles and the Stones” in case anyone didn’t spot the influences.

In the end, of course, Chadwick comes up short of his influences. But often enough his informed, literate writing and knack for guitar-pop dynamics made his transgressions almost forgivable. As Jack Palance says, confidence is sexy.