Track Listing

1. Show Girl
2. Bailed Out
3. American Guitars
4. Junk Shop Clothes
5. Don't Trust the Stars
6. Starstruck
7. How Could I Be Wrong
8. Housebreaker
9. Valet Parking
10. Idiot Brother
11. Early Years
12. Home Again

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #152487 in Music
• Released on: 1993-03-10
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import

Amazon.co.uk Review
The title, Auteurs' auteur Luke Haines would later explain, was "a crap joke", as was his decision to pose for the cover photograph got up as a 1950s matinée idol playing Lawrence Of Arabia. These were hardly the last signifiers of Haines' somewhat obtuse sense of humour, and New Wave was only the first of several unnervingly great and wilfully diverse albums by The Auteurs. It was heavily in hock to The Kinks and The Go-Betweens but had enough going for it on its own merits that it is rightly regarded as one of the best British debuts of the decade. Much of New Wave is consumed with fame; specifically, with Haines' fascination with and horror of those who have attained it. Songs like "Don't Trust The Stars", "Starstruck" and "Valet Parking" pick at the subject with the same morbid wonder as small children with scabs. Though Haines doesn't reach any firm conclusions--the last line of the album is "A test you took ... awaiting results"--he makes an unarguable case for himself as a striking new talent, and a genuine successor to Ray Davies and Mark E. Smith in the canon of great cantankerous British pop mavericks. --Andrew Mueller

Customer Reviews

a classic
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.

A Truly Great Brit Songwriter
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!

Truly spectacular
Landmark album by one of the most original and uncompromising artists of the past 50 years. The self-declared genius behind this group is of course Luke Haines, and, as will aready be obvious, I agree with his declaration. I like his worst music and love his best. This album from 1993 and the first in the Auteurs series contains some of his very best. Tracks like Showgirl, How can I be wrong and Starstruck are standouts. Showgirl gets to a point where you don't think anything could get any better - but then it does just that during the guitar solo which makes up the last 30 seconds. He's been likened to the Kinks and Bowie, but, while the influence may be there, he does not sound like them; he sounds like Luke Haines, and, if there is any justice, which there is not of course, he'll eventually be remembered as just as important.