On the bus to perform at the Reading Festival in 2006, with two albums, a string of hit singles and a cult following under their belt, Hope of The States decided it was time to call it a day. The very same weekend plans were afoot for a new band and Dark Houses were born. The album they went on to record in the wake of the split ended up sat on a hard drive, never to be heard, until it found its way into the hands of The Lost Music Club who are now giving it the full release and recognition it deserves.

Dark Houses

Dark Houses features Hope of The States lyricist and vocalist Sam Herlihy, drummer Simon Jones and bassist, Paul Wilson, along with guitarist Johnny Winter. With the musical complexities and multi-tracked instrumentals that Hope of The States fans will find familiar, Dark Houses never played live. By the time label interest and a release looked likely, the band were already moving on and ready to go on to form The Northwestern. Dark Houses remained an interim project and the album was shelved.

The Album

As Simon Jones tells the story, “I guess musically it wasn’t a massive step change from Hope of The States, but we had consciously tried to steer away from the ‘rock’ of our previous record and the wailing post rock guitars people had come to expect. Songs like ‘The Number’ and ‘Fire’ were far janglier and poppier than anything we had done before and ‘Rot and Gin’ and ‘Sparrows’ are two of the drunkest / loosest tracks we ever worked on.”

He continues, “It’s great to have the record finally coming out. Although we initially shelved it, I have come to realise Dark Houses was probably some of our most cohesive, beautiful work.”

Sam Herlihy adds, “Whatever this record is, I’m probably more proud of ‘Sparrows‘ than almost anything else I’ve ever written. It’s a rare example of when a song does everything, exactly the way you hoped it might. It’s also my wife’s favorite song I’ve ever done  for what it’s worth”

Order it now!

The album is now finally set to be released on 25th November on CD, with a limited run of track ‘Direction of God’ on hand lathe cut 7” and a very limited bundle of album, 7” and  handwritten lyric sheet.

You can pre-order your copy from our shop here

Direction of God

Get a taster of the album with the single Direction of God…