luke haines/the auteurs

[mike]

is anyone else a fan of luke haines here? i found out recently that he's even more unappreciated in america than he is over here, but i honestly think he's one of the best songwriters of his generation and the kind of guy a lot of people here would really dig if they'd heard him. i think lyrically he has a lot in common with craig finn, in that he's hyper-literate and full of cultural references, but there's a sneering, superior arrogance to his music which i totally love.

a lot of his work seems to be quite self-consciously dickensian, dealing with the british class system essentially being redivided under thatcher, but it's largely anecdotal rather than specifically Political and his scorn seems equally shared among everyone. when he's singing about people struggling, even when they're pulling together, there's a tone in his voice which makes you think that as far as he's concerned these people are getting what they deserve. in spite of that, there's still a sense of pride and affection for englishness and all its darkness and contradictions.

if you're looking for somewhere to start, there's worse places than the "luke haines is dead" anthology - it's a mix of singles, b-sides, sessions, unreleased songs and album tracks, but they're very well chosen and only a handful are on the proper albums so you won't feel like you're wasting your time buying those once you've been won over. plus, when i bought it at least, it was very reasonably priced for a three-cd, 63-song collection.

if you're one of those people who prefers to start with the studio albums, get "after murder park" first (seriously, this record is flawless throughout), and then the "baader meinhof" album, and then, uh, the rest of them.


Everything You Say Will Destroy You

Well they sent back all the bodies
Who were looking really hopeless
And it didn't seem that callous
'Till they stopped you in your flow
She's surrounded by her wardens
And they're looking really nervous
All about the man from Reuters
Here to nullify your glow
Everything you say
Will destroy you anyway
Everything you say
Will come haunt you round each corner
Everything you say will destroy you
Well you may think you're Buddha
Lying on a mound of ashes
You were mentioned in the postscipt
Of dispatches anyway
And the major's really nervous
When he's walking around the airport
You know your master's card is marked
Your upstart charge is cool and smart
Everything you say
Will destroy you anyway
Everything you say
Will come haunt you round each corner
Everything you say will destroy you
Well your unwanted suitor
Leaves his things around your home
He´s marking out his territory
He's pissing on your answer phone
Well you may think you're Buddha
Lying on a mound of ashes
You were mentioned in the postscript
Of dispatches anyway
Everything you say
Will destroy you anyway
Everything you say
Will come haunt you round each corner
Everything you say will destroy you


Home Again

Home again
Housesitting again
Rifle through your
Possessions and stuff
The things that you are
Ashamed of
Home again
Housesitting again
Looking through photos
At the back of your drawer
The way that you looked
When you were small
You're safe, there's no prowler
No creeper in your lane
It's better than drugs, it's cool
To be in your home again
Shhh
Home again
Housesitting again
It's just a little bit far
From the main crowd
Reading your poems
When you're not around
Home again
Housesitting again
Hospital letter
A clinic on hold
A test that you took
Awaiting result
You're safe, there's no prowler
No creeper in your lane
It's better than drugs, it's cool
To be in your home again
You're safe, there's no prowler
No creeper in your lane
It's better than drugs, it's cool
To be in your home again
You're safe, there's no prowler
No looker in your lane
It's better than drugs, it's cool
To be in your home again
To be in your home again
To be in your
Home again

[stuckbetween]

Luke Haines is genius. I have got a few Auters EP's and not much else but he's a clever fellow who knows how to write a good song.
He's just produced a book called ‘Bad Vibes - Britpop And My Part In Its Downfall' which sounds like a good read.

[mike]

i'd not heard about that book but it sounds like something i very much want to read! haines played a much bigger part in the britpop's development than he's often given credit for, but was too sarcastic and negative to be embraced by the public and (rightly) thought the majority of the other bands were shit.

[yolatengo]

He is also the songwriter of Black Box Recorder, isn't he? I have two of their discs and I really dig them. I have a few Auteurs tracks that I have been able to find, but I have no full length. It sounds like the Luke Haines is Dead might be the place to start, eh?

[jamesjesusangleton]

The book's an amusing way to spend a couple of hours. The whole point of it, though, is his insistence that he had nothing to do with Britpop - a misconception based on a misinterpretation of American Guitars, he says. Though, equally, he's happy to claim New Wave as the first Britpop album. Some irritating errors, but nicely done. Of the Black Box Recorder people, John Moore's the better prose writer. But he hasn't written a book.

[mike]

Jan 12, 2009 13:51:55 GMT -5 yolatengo said:

He is also the songwriter of Black Box Recorder, isn't he? I have two of their discs and I really dig them. I have a few Auteurs tracks that I have been able to find, but I have no full length. It sounds like the Luke Haines is Dead might be the place to start, eh?

yeah, he's the brains behind black box recorder as well. they're excellent too, but i do prefer his stuff with the auteurs.

luke haines is dead is a great place to start. aside from a couple of ropey remixes pretty much every song in the collection is great. the second disc is especially fantastic. it's kind of like 'soft rock', though, in that there's more music than you can possibly digest at once. entertainingly sarcastic liner notes, too: "Albini thought that Kids Issue sounded like the Monkees. He was wrong. Jonathan King also commended this track in his tip sheet. Can't think why. The Baader Meinhof single was released on the same day as the Back With the Killer EP, just in time for the Christmas market. The infallible logic behind this being that the more of my product on the shelves, the more the public will buy it. I knew I couldn't fail."