HIM - And Love Said No

Wed 7th Jul, 2004 in Music Reviews

This latest offering from HIM is a Greatest Hits CD – And Love Said No.  I’m often a bit wary about CDs titled as such – especially by bands I didn’t even know had a single released.  On scanning the back of this CD, some song titles sounded familiar.  A couple of covers on a greatest hits CD… this was proving to be interesting before it even hit the CD deck.

HIM have already released three albums, which combined have sold 2 million copies.   With Valo on vocals, Gas on drums, Burton on keyboards, Mige on bass, Linde on guitar, collectively they are known as HIM.   As we all love to categorise bands and slot them into their musical pigeon hole, HIM define their music as love metal.  Drawing on a range of musical influences which include Slayer, Tchaikovsky, Brian Eno, Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison, HIM claim that they didn’t honestly know where their personal influences would take them as a band. 

These Greatest Hits span the 1997 – 2004 timeline in the musical career of HIM.  A healthy offering of sixteen tracks, this CD has quite a few stand out tracks.  Without even knowing much about this band, it is easy to pick the previously released singles.  Right Here In My Arms has an infectious chorus that I was unable to stop humming for the next few hours.  The opening track and title of the CD, And Love Said No quite obviously sets the theme for the remaining tracks on the CD.  Lyrics written with heartfelt emotion along with music to compliment, these tracks are set to stir even the slightest emotion in a heart of stone. Join Me – yet another track with an infectious chorus and would surely slot in as the background music to a great tragedy scene – Shakespeare or even Hollywood style.

Track five brings the listener to the first cover on the CD.  Who would have thought Neil Diamond’s Solitary Man could sound like this?  More of a sing-a-long version than the despairing rendition of Mr Diamond’s original, it’s still a great song.  A rollercoaster of dynamics remove this cover from the way the original was intended.  Funeral of Hearts is another track big on emotion.  HIM are big on the emotion charged songs, which in some parts can border on depressing – not that there is anything wrong with that – everyone loves to listen to a good heartbreaker now and then. 

Chris Isaak should be proud of HIM’s version of Wicked Game.  Wicked Game by HIM showcases dirtier guitar than the original version.  Valo’s vocals are equally as haunting with a hint of more seduction – if it is indeed possible to be more seductive than the voice of Mr Isaak.  Apart from the two covers on this album, all lyrics and music are written by Valo.  After listening to this album several times, it’s hard not to sympathise with Valo and his sometime tragic lyrics. I’ve often thought that a songwriter writes their best work when they are sad or have had some sort of tragedy touch their lives – Kurt Cobain, Layne Staley, Morrisey and now Valo.

Finally, the overall package that encases this fine CD is hard to miss.  A fold out poster of Valo on one side, which is very easy on the eye and a photo of the band on the other side of the sleeve, which is just as easy to look at.  It’s hard to understand why HIM have not been more prominent in Australia.  This could be one of the best kept secrets in quite a while.  Love might say no to Valo and HIM but you shouldn’t.