New Wave

What Luke Haines and the Auteurs acomplished here was an erudite, melodic, largely acoustic set of songs that perfectly capsulated the early brit pop scene in a way to which only the Auteurs could. This album is fairly perfect and is a wonderful treasure of simple, yet wonderful songs. When the album produces some of its greatest songs like "Junk Shop Clothes", "Bailed Out", "Starstruck", "Show Girl", and "Housebreaker", you've got a sound that approaches an attractive combination of early 70s Bowie, the Go-Betweens, and the Beatles. superb.

The Auteurs 'New Wave' is without doubt one of the great debut albums of all time, showcasing as it does the lyrical savagery of one Luke Haines, a seething malcontent who honed his lyrical barbs to a lethal point on this wonderful album. Much of its lyrical theme is on 'stars' and 'stardom', from a geezer who was never likely to be one. The album is almost uncanny in its anticipation of the whole 'celebrity' shtick that currently holds sway over the media's consciousness. Plus, it contains some boss tunes - 'Junk Shop Clothes', 'Idiot Brother' - just two of the darkly glittering Pop jewels in Haines swag bag. And, the thing is, he got better and better - and this album has not dated one iota. Make Luke's life a little more bearable by buying a copy of 'New Wave' now!

It's odd how this album has become quite forgotten, failing to enter the lexicon the way much more mediocre records tagged "Britpop" do. It's amusing to think that the misguided judge on the Mercury Panel who voted for 'Suede' over 'New Wave' set Luke Haines on another trajectory. One that was even more interesting and encompassed Oliver Twist, the Baader-Meinhof Gang, the English Motorway System, Leeds United, Unsolved Child Murders, The Rubettes, The English Travelling Wilburys, Patty Hearst & a Pop Strike. That is a different story, while I'm of the opinion that Haines and accomplices/employees got greater, 'New Wave' remains a great record. Five stars, obviously...

1992's debut single 'Showgirl' got critics very excited, an indie hit that was almost a hit single and one that had fans including the Pet Shop Boys when people cared. I first saw The Auteurs support a 'Drowners'-era Suede, and they kind of blew them away, despite the hype. Of course, Haines' didn't slap his backside with a mic and wasn't so obviously in hock to 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars.' There were influences, but ones a little culty and worked well into the Auteurs' own sound - Haines' mentioned the Modern Lovers' debut as the model for 'New Wave' - the "health shop" reference in 'Showgirl' probably could have come from a song like 'She Cracked' ("I stay at home/eat health food at home", I think!). Like Suede, there was a general glam air - I'd say T Rex over Bowie - though it's a bit more subtle than Suede and Denim, the pair of bands who probably were the 'Glam Racket' Mark E Smith sang of during his 'Infotainment Scan.' There's more than a hint of the mighty Go-Betweens, literary lyrics, far too clever, like a bedsit Dylan lost in a certain England. Haines' has cited The Only Ones, and that is more than fair when considering Haines' guitar on songs like 'Don't Trust the Stars', 'How Could I Be Wrong?' & 'Early Years.' In a more general sense, Haines' is tapping into an English tradition of lyric that was a bit forgotten at the time - we'd had indie-dance, ambient, grunge, variants of rave, shoegazing, and were just a sniff away from stadium house - so you could think of the neglected part of Ray Davies' career (late 60s-early 70s), Mark E Smith, Elvis Costello, and the caustic side of Kevin Rowland. There are reminders of the early work of The Smiths, though not in that dreary way bands like Gene and Raymonde sounded like them; on the other hand, 'New Wave' predicts the few decent Morrissey albums of the 1990s in sound and lyric: 'Your Arsenal' and 'Vauxhall and I.' & I'd go on the record and say that a certain kind of England Haines' is singing about predicted the horror that was The Libertines - play this against either of their records and see how overrated Docherty & co are. The Go-Betweens/certain period of Orange Juice elements predict the band we know as Belle and Sebastian - take a look at the lyrics to 'Showgirl' or 'Junk Shop Clothes' and you'll pretty much find B&S' career, albeit better and several years earlier...

'New Wave' always sounds good this time of year, it's amazing just how loaded with joys this debut album is - 'Bailed Out', 'Idiot Brother', 'Starstruck', 'Housebreaker', 'How Could I Be Wrong', 'Junk Shop Clothes'...why does it feel a bit forgotten? Was it too clever? I certainly recall people having that mild aversion to The Auteurs that some had with Morrissey/The Smiths and Belle and Sebastian - though I guess 'After Murder Park' and 'baader meinhof' put paid to that, the u-ziq remix thing too. It's possibly Haines' least caustic album, despite the fact it includes lines like "I want to kill your sister with some business advice" and pretty much all of 'American Guitars', a sneering at a certain band/scene.

'New Wave' is a pretty darn great debut, though I'm of the opinion that neglected follow-up 'Now I'm a Cowboy' is probably a better record in similar climes - especially 'The Upper Classes.' With 'New Wave', Haines and The Auteurs pretty much set out the landscape - I know 'Modern Life is Rubbish' and 'Suede' popped up around the same time, so why is it that Haines feels like a pioneer? Amusingly, Haines would reject the Britpop thing and record an album with Steve Albini - embracing alternative-America a few years before Damon Albarn decided that was where it was at! I would like to point out that the first disc of the three-cd set 'Luke Haines is Dead' has lots of lovely related material - 'She Might Take a Train', 'Government Bookstore', 'Subculture' and lots of alternative live/session versions. Some of which are better than those here, notably the BBC session take on 'Junk Shop Clothes', the single mix of 'How Could I Be Wrong' & the unreleased single mix of 'Bailed Out.' So, maybe that wonderful compilation should be investigated too?

'New Wave' remains an assured debut from one of the great English songwriters, though I would like to point out my favourite songs to emanate from Haines & co don't include any of the songs here!: The Spook Manifesto, Child Brides, Mogadishu, The Facts of Life, Leeds United, Christ, Unsolved Child Murder, Kill Ramirez, The Upper Classes, What Happens When We Die & Future Generation. As D:REAM and Tony Blair would predict in the 1990s: Things can only get better...