The world according to Luke Haines. First rising to fame amidst the
new glam rampantness of Suede, his band The Auteurs produced some fantastically
fatalistic moments of wonder, but not gaining the same degree of success as Brett
and his ability to bounce a mic off his arse. And so it came to pass that The
Auteurs got more and more (justifiably) embittered and eventually died, to be reborn briefly as Baader Meinhoff. That too exploded into the ether, and now
Haines returns phoenix like with Black Box Recorder and their unsettling
love songs for misanthropists. And he is as vitally essential as ever.
"England Made Me" is astoundingly good. Everything about it: the half-tempo chorus, the minimalist guitar backing that sounds like spiders spinning
webs a million miles away, and - best of all - the dispassioned and almost sneering
female vocals that sound like PJ Harvey crossed with Nico (yes, that good).
Recounting an inescapable life-defining episode from youth, the lyrics too
impress, being both sparse and intelligent, and as frighteningly ambiguous as seeing another face stare back from the mirror. This is music to listen to when
the sun burns your eyes and you wish it was raining. As far from the sound of summer as you could ever get.
The flipside (this is a 7") is "Lord Lucan Is Missing" which, although
losing points on the topicality meter, is still a searing mass of dark vitriol
and menace, peppered with guitar feedback that could kill at 20 paces.
Keep on kicking against the pricks, Mr Haines.
Rating: 10/10
The Rest
Whilst some have decided that loin-grinding music that sounds like steamhammers
having it off is so unfashionable (yeah, give me Embrace and Shed Seven anytime...),
round these parts Garbage's blend of metal, fluids, rubber and cooler-than-thou
attitude is as refreshing as ever, perhaps even more so in today's musical
scene. Admittedly, their new material is a little softer and poppier than their
gloriously OTT goth posturings of yore, but "I Think I'm Paranoid" is still a
mighty shagmonster of a song, featuring some outrageously post-coital style
lyrics from La Manson, and a gargantuan chorus forged in one of Trent Reznor's wet dreams. Messy and dirty perhaps, but what the hell - pvc wipes clean...
"Deadwood" is the first b-side and, after the tumescent bluster of the a-side, is
a little disappointing, a mellowish affair that never gets up a head of steam.
Better is "Afterglow", slower still, but once again capturing that sci-fi sex
vibe, like androids shagging in zero-g.
The only anachronistic thing about Garbage is their name.
Rating: 9/10
For every 20 or so new bands inspired to pick up a guitar and walk like a gibbon by
Oasis, there are also one or two whose influences have come from less workmanlike
places. Ballroom are one such group, bowing down to the church of Suede and -
whether they realise it or not - The Kitchens Of Distinction (the best UK guitar
band of all time - fact). "Through The Day" therefore moves through grand landscapes defined by epic chord changes and passionate vocals, dark clouds
parting every now and again to let shards of shimmering guitar cast interesting
shapes upon the ground. All this scene-setting loses focus on the tune a little
however, and this is hardly one you'll be humming in the bath, but give them
a little of your time for no other reason than they are looking skywards and
not down at their feet.
One b-side (a 7" again), and that is the Smiths-like "Let Go", which although
sounding a little out of time and unfashionable, still manages to capture your
attention for at least the amount of time it takes to play.
Rating: 7/10
Time to give Yorke Minor another chance. So unimpressed was I by "Higher Than
Reason" that I dealt it the ultimate blow: comparing it to Crowded House.
Well, perhaps I was wrong. "Settle Down" sounds like Del Amitri, and all those other bands people that don't really like music listen to.
As tedious as watching Glastonbury dry.
"Dune Sea" makes things even worse by introducing a folk tinge into proceedings.
The only good folk tinge I have heard recently is in that B*Witched song when
they all start riverdancing. Late news just in - The Waterboys were shite too.
"Circle" is a bit better, with a sparse production that sounds like ancient trees thinking. Andy Yorke's mannered vocal spoils it all again though, the Dutch Elm Disease of music.
Rating: 3/10
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