New Wave | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 22 February 1993 | |||
Genre | Alternative rock, indie pop | |||
Length | 43:41 | |||
Label | Hut | |||
Producer | Phil Vinall, Luke Haines | |||
The Auteurs chronology | ||||
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New Wave is the 1993 debut album by British rock band the Auteurs. In 2014, British independent record label 3 Loop Music re-released the album on 180gsm Vinyl and as a 2CD Expanded Edition which included b-sides, rarities, radio session tracks and the original 4-track demos that led to the band's signing with Hut Records.
After the demist of the Servants, musicians Luke Haines and Alice Readman formed the Auteurs; former Dog Unit drummer Glenn Collins joined soon after. The trio made their live debut in April 1992 at the Euston Rails Club in London, signing to Hut Records, a subsidiary of major label Virgin Records. British press saw the band as part of a potential glam rock revival, while American press would plainly compare them to Suede. [1] Author Dave Thompson wrote in his book Alternative Rock (2000) that New Wave laid the groundwork for what would subsequently become Britpop. [1]
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [2] |
Alternative Rock | 8/10 [3] |
Drowned in Sound | 9/10 [4] |
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [5] |
Entertainment Weekly | A− [6] |
The Irish Times | [7] |
Record Collector | [8] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [9] |
Select | 4/5 [10] |
The Village Voice | A− [11] |
"Show Girl" was released the lead single in December 1992, ahead of New Wave, which appeared in early 1993. By this point, celloist James Banbury joined the band. By mid-1993, Collins was replaced by Barny C. Rockford. [1]
Thompson referred to the album as a "university thesis on how to build Brit-pop, shot through with such startlingly intelligent perversity that the end result is more of a template than a tribute." He singled "Show Girl" and "Junk Shop Clothes" as highlights. [3] Stereo Review wrote that "Haines is a brooder who tends toward minor keys and bleak but arresting lyrics that obsess on the darker side of showbiz and celebrity." [12] The Washington Post concluded that "not all these songs are as catchy as 'Bailed Out' or 'Early Years' but those who empathize with Haines's self-mocking boho sensibility will find New Wave immensely appealing." [13]
In a retrospective review, Jake Kennedy of Record Collector said it was not the band's best effort, but considered it a "canny time capsule, bundled up with all the retro glam of the era", with a number of lyrical topics which "confuse and charm in equal measure". [8]
Thompson said that it was one of the most acclaimed albums in 1993. It was shortlisted for the 1993 Mercury Prize. [1] It is now included in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list. [14]
All songs written by Luke Haines. [15]
Personnel per booklet. [15]
The Auteurs were a British alternative rock band of the 1990s, and a vehicle for songwriter Luke Haines. Several bands influenced by the Auteurs have taken their names from the band's songs. The Polish band Lenny Valentino name is derived from a song on the Auteurs' album Now I'm a Cowboy and Valet, a band based in Minneapolis took its name from the song "Valet Parking" from another album, New Wave.
Metric is a Canadian indie rock band founded in 1998 in Toronto, Ontario. The band consists of Emily Haines, James Shaw, Joshua Winstead and Joules Scott-Key. The band started in 1998 as a duo formed by Haines and Shaw with the name "Mainstream". After releasing an EP titled Mainstream EP, they changed the band's name to Metric.
Luke Michael Haines is an English musician, songwriter and author. He has recorded music under various names and with various bands, including The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder.
VC Recordings trading as Hut Records was a British record label brand which was started in 1990 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Virgin Records. Despite being wholly owned by a major label, it was classed as an independent label for the purposes of the UK Indie Chart due to the independent distribution, which was used by Virgin as a means of gaining exposure for new acts.
Penthouse and Pavement is the debut studio album by English synth-pop band Heaven 17, released in September 1981 by Virgin Records.
How I Learned to Love the Bootboys is the fourth and final album by British rock band the Auteurs. It was released on 5 July 1999 through Hut and Virgin Records. Following their third studio album After Murder Park (1996), Haines started the Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder projects. He regrouped with the Auteurs to start work on a concept album under the name ESP Kids, though sessions halted as Black Box Recorder worked on their debut album England Made Me (1998). The Auteurs re-started recording their next album in January 1998 at RAK Studios in London; Hut and Virgin were not happy with the lack of single-sounding songs. After writing "The Rubettes", the band finished recording in April 1998. How I Learned to Love the Bootboys is a glam rock album that takes atmospheric influence from England Made Me.
The Pleasure Principle is the debut solo studio album by the English new wave musician Gary Numan, released on 7 September 1979 by Beggars Banquet Records. The album came about six months after Replicas (1979), his second and final studio album with the band Tubeway Army. The Pleasure Principle peaked at No. 1 on the UK Albums Chart.
The Infotainment Scan is the fifteenth album by The Fall, released in 1993 on Permanent Records in the UK and by Matador Records in the USA. At the time of its release, it was considered the band's most accessible album and came when the band were experiencing unprecedented recognition in the media. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number 9, making it their highest-charting album.
Junk Culture is the fifth studio album by English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), released on 30 April 1984 by Virgin Records. After the commercial disappointment of the experimental Dazzle Ships (1983), OMD and Virgin intended for the group to shift towards a more accessible sound on its follow-up release. The band retained much of their early experimental approach but embraced a wider range of influences than previously, drawing inspiration from pop, dance, Latin and black music. Frontman Andy McCluskey characterised Junk Culture as "the catchiest, poppiest album [OMD] ever made".
Now I'm a Cowboy is the 1994 second album by British rock band the Auteurs. On 2 June 2014 Now I'm a Cowboy was reissued alongside After Murder Park and How I Learned to Love the Bootboys. The reissue features unreleased songs and liner notes written by Luke Haines. It was released through 3 Loop Music.
After Murder Park is the third album by British rock band the Auteurs, released in March 1996. The album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and produced by Steve Albini. In 2014, British independent record label 3 Loop Music re-released the album as a 2CD Expanded Edition which included b-sides, alternate versions, radio session tracks and live recordings.
Unicorn is the third studio album by English psychedelic folk band Tyrannosaurus Rex. It was released on 16 May 1969 by record labels Regal Zonophone and Blue Thumb, and was the last Tyrannosaurus Rex album to feature Steve Peregrin Took.
Baader Meinhof is a 1996 album by Luke Haines, under the pseudonym Baader Meinhof. The name is taken from two of the main members of the Red Army Faction, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, and the album, composed of 10 tracks, tells the history of group, since the ideas that might have inspired the group, their first actions, their travel to Jordan, their capture, the hijacking of a Lufthansa airplane by the members of the "second generation" of the RAF, in 1977 ("Mogadishu").
England Made Me is the debut studio album of English rock band Black Box Recorder. It was released through Chrysalis Records on 20 July 1998. After releasing albums with the Auteurs and as Baader Meinhof, in early 1997, musician Luke Haines formed Black Box Recorder with John Moore and Sarah Nixey. Through most of 1997, the band recorded their debut album with Auteurs collaborator-and-producer Phil Vinall in several London studios, including Milo and The Drugstore. The country folk, easy listening and pop album is named for Graham Greene's 1935 novel eponymous novel, and has been compared to the work of Portishead and Young Marble Giants. Bontempi drums and a radio scanner, and samples are used on several tracks. The songs' lyrics criticize the mundane experience of living and growing up in post-Restoration England, and explore the themes of single mothers and teenage sex.
Das Capital is a 2003 album released by British singer/songwriter Luke Haines. The album features orchestral re-recordings of some of his older songs from The Auteurs and Baader Meinhof periods, along with some new tracks.
Luke Haines is Dead is a three-disc boxed set containing various rarities, remixes, b-sides, unreleased material and classic tracks from The Auteurs, Baader Meinhof and Haines' solo work.
Steve Took's Horns was an English rock band with blues rock and punk influences formed in 1977 by former Tyrannosaurus Rex percussionist turned solo artist Steve Peregrin Took together with Trev Thoms, later of Nik Turner's Inner City Unit. The band was the first in which Thoms worked with his future Inner City Unit bandmate Ermanno Ghisio Erba aka Dino Ferari, in what would be a long string of collaborations until Thoms' death in 2010. A 2004 posthumous album of the band was reviewed in Classic Rock magazine, a 1978 live performance was reviewed in Melody Maker, the band's 1977 recording session was described at length in a Forced Exposure interview with eyewitness Larry Wallis and the band was euologised in a Record Collector article about Took written by Luke Haines.
The Servants were an indie band formed in 1985 in Hayes, Middlesex, England by singer-songwriter David Westlake. The band was the original home of Luke Haines.
"Tesla Girls" is a song by the English electronic band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), released as the third single from their fifth studio album, Junk Culture (1984). It peaked at No. 21 in the UK and Ireland, and No. 8 on the Dutch Top 40. Although only moderately successful on the charts, it became one of the group's biggest club hits.
Westlake is the first album by English singer/songwriter David Westlake. Creation Records released the album in November 1987. Under the title D87, the album was reissued in expanded form in August 2023.
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