No More Apologies
No More Apologies is an album from Irish rock band A House. Released in 1996, it was A House's final studio album. Reception. "No More Apologies" was generally well received, but reviewers tended to see it as an explicit swansong. "Q Magazine" gave it four stars (from five) recommending it "for all who love beauty best when it is bruised". "NME" was much less enthusiastic, awarding 5/10 to "by no means a bad album" which nonetheless seemed flat compared to the "near-masterpiece" that was its predecessor, "Wide-Eyed and Ignorant". The "Irish Times" described an  album by a band in a "relaxed and resigned mood ... accepting their fate and lack of fortune with a philosophical air," but still capable of the odd "barbed word" and subtle touches in melody and guitar. AllMusic, awarding the album 3 stars, likewise notes "a band coming to grips with its place in the universe" although "in a better world Couse and company would have become the stars they deserved [sic]" while in the real world, "listeners were still lucky to have them". An elegiacal article in the "Irish Times" later in the year said "A House is far more  important than U2," albeit in the rather special sense that A House's achievement was to survive as a properly Irish rock band which did not disappear, like so many others, under U2's shadow, and actually succeeded in producing a series of "evolving albums culminating" in "No More Apologies". The article also notes almost unanimous praise for "No More Apologies" in Ireland, with the exception of "Hot Press", and that "Les Inrockuptibles" in France had nominated it for album of the year. "The Encyclopedia of Popular Music" called it "a disappointingly mediocre swansong for such an interesting band." No