Album Review: Luke Haines – Setting the Dogs on the Post Punk Postman (Cherry Red)

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By the time you are in your fifties it’s good to have been shortlisted for the Mercury prize, appeared on Top of the Pops and written a critically praised autobiography. Luke Haines has done all of these, he was the lead singer of The Auters, who missed out on the Mercury Prize to Suede in ‘93, formed Black Box Recorder who hit the UK top twenty in 2000 with The Facts of Life and his first book of memoirs Bad Vibes: Britpop And My Part in it’s Downfall is mean spirited, dark and comical. In addition, there are more bands, two more memoirs, art shows, a novel and documentary about him, and a new album almost every year this century.

On this year’s album Setting the Dogs on the Post Punk Postman he is assisted by Peter Buck (REM) and Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh). The first track is one that was left over from the sessions with Peter Buck for last year’s album Beat Poetry for Survivalists. The track is Ex Stasi Spy about what an ex Stasi spy does nowadays accompanied by a quietly strummed 12 string guitar. This has much more of a pop hook than you would expect from the subject matter.

The next track U Boat Baby opens with brash T Rex like power chords and Haines snarling “I’m a Kaiser Kind of Guy, got a helmet with a spike”. At the end of the song Haines sings that he is “… a U boat lover till the day I die.” which, apart from the U boat reference, sounds very familiar.

After the pop and glam of the first two tracks Haines slows things down. On Never Going Back To Liverpool the bass and drums propel his narrative of incidents and characters, such as psychedelic Derek, that have led to him deciding he is `’never going back to Liverpool, again.”

Haines is at his most whimsical on the quiet and pastoral When I Owned The Scarecrow. On this he whispers over carefully picked guitar strings, gentle drums and fairground noises about his feelings and experiences when he owned the scarecrow. Yes, Mr Pumpkin is a slowly told sinister story over crashing guitars and synthesiser noise about a suicide pact with a pumpkin  At the end of this song we are reassured by the official sounding voice that “the pumpkin was found not guilty” but warned “if you are dumb enough to enter into a pact with a pumpkin, then loss of life may not be your biggest problem.” Landscape Gardening is a based on a slowly picked guitar ad is about a “new world” being built in the garden for various animals with particular attention for the “rare rabbits.”

As is often the case with Haines there are songs that tell stories about real people. Ivor On The Bus is about meeting the Scottish poet, musician and humorist Ivor Cutler. The introduction by echoing voices which alerts us that this will be a surreal experience. The memorable chorus is “singing songs with Ivor on the bus.” Haines sees the feminist activist Andrea Dworkin at the “municipal swimming pool” and composes the song Andrea Dwokin’s Knees. At over five minutes this is long, meandering and, unfortunately, the weakest song on the album. The Two Japanese Freaks Talking About Mao and Nixon is a short sharp guitar and feedback pop stomp with distorted voices about Japanese avant garde poet, writer and film director Shuji Terayama.

I Just Want To Be Buried is a straightforward 90s Britpop sounding piece. In the verses over a slow, bass drum beat Haines lists the places he doesn’t want to buried. In the chorus he affirms where he does want to be buried over a cacophony of drum and guitar. The schoolboy lyrics of the chorus reveal it’s not about a funeral at all as the places Haines wants to be buried are “between your breasts and between your legs.”

The album ends with a final wonderful burst of noise Setting the Dog On The Post Punk Postman. This builds up to Haines name-checking experimental industrial music group Throbbing Gristle and multi talented instrumentalist Epic Soundtracks in repetitive chants which are echoed by fast hand clapping.

If you are already converted to the world of Luke Haines you will enjoy this eccentric, clever and witty album sung mostly in his characteristic murmured monotone.  If you haven’t already entered his world then take a chance on being entertained by surreal English humour touched with a dark edge.

John Bradbury

 

John Bradbury
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