• Voto:
Luke Haines leader indiscusso degli Auteurs è un altro personaggio sottovalutatissmo, perso com'è ormai nella storia del Brit-pop sebbene la sua visione e scrittura non appartenesse per nulla all'ottimismo e alla solarità del brit-pop anni 90.
Basta ascoltare 'New Wave', primo e forse più rappresentativo album degli Auteurs, le atmosfere decadenti, cupe, oppressive riescono a ingabbiare queste canzoni pop dandole una chiave di lettura difforme, inquietante, sporca.
Haines conserva il gusto melodico dei migliori songwtiters albionici ma ogni parola viene come pronunciata con un ghigno malevolo e malinconico, da stella decaduta. Ed i testi son infatti infarciti di "stars" sfatte, distrutte, cadute in disgrazia, di personaggi mezzi falliti. Queste canzoni sanno di stanze con letti disfatti e bottiglie di birra per terra, di risvegli a mezzogiorno senza memorie di ciò che è successo la sera prima.
È un mondo di luci e ombre. Luci spesso lontane perse in un passato che non tornerà e ombre presenti, inevitabili. Le chitarre sono dense d'una potenta repressa, la voce di Haines è una smorfia di sdegno come in "Idiot Brother" uno dei pezzi migliori dell'album. Ma sa anche farsi più dolce nel gioiellino "Junk Shop Clothes"("...will get you nowhere...") o ancora ironica in Valet Parking ("Im sick of parking cars...").
Insomma un disco da riscoprire, pregevole sia a livello di testi che nella componente musicale.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
01 Show Girl (04:07)
I took a show girl
for my bride
Thought my life
would be right
Took her bowling
got her high
Got myself a showgirl bride
Took a job on the side
In a health shop
keeps me well
Got my mantra for life
Got my karma
And a showgirl bride
All my life
All her life
All our life
I married a showgirl
That's for life
She can't work
in the wintertime
I can't work anytime now
Go to libraries all the while
Looking for a notice
Looking for a name
All my life
All her life
All our life
I married a showgirl
That's for life
I took a showgirl
For my bride
Sprinkled stardust
on my wife
Took her bowling
got her high
Got myself a showgirl bride
Don't you recognise me?
02 Bailed Out (03:44)
Your star is descending
Round here blindly
Tell your dancing daughter
That there's no room
on the wing
We can bitch
but it ain't tinsel town
Hey! Starchild
Can't dance
Left out on a useless limb
This party will start
To drag you down
Slap your face
and pull your hair
Bailed out, bailed out
Bailed out, this skin is shed
Bailed out, bailed out
Bailed out, this thing is dead
I was in traction
started off smiling
Couldn't help laughing
I was astounded when
They caught you unaware
And some missionary said
That this week
we've got to shot
All the dancing girls
And then replace them
With satellites instead.
Bailed out, bailed out
Bailed out, this skin is shed
Bailed out, bailed out
Bailed out, this thing is dead
Like to see something change
Around here, around there
03 American Guitars (03:31)
They were failing dutifully
If you're going to fail at all
Failing came more easily
Than it did to us all
And I wanted to be there
See them begin
It was easy to see they were
The best band to be in
I gave up drugging
When you spiked my drink
Stopped freeloading
When I could not get in
I gave up singing
When I was told
I could not dance
Knew my place in the world
When I heard them start
Woke up Sunday morning
With a hole
the size of my pool
Couldn't believe
I'd grown so ugly
Couldn't believe
I'd been so cruel
I should have set back
Thought about their past
East coast to west coast
How they'd struggled
for their art
Some people
were born to write
Some people
were born to dance
Thought I knew
my place in the world
Thought I knew my art
Glad to be there, see them begin
It was easy to see
They were the best band to be in
04 Junk Shop Clothes (02:43)
Junk shop clothes
Will get you nowhere
Theyre out of season
Its betrayal with no treason
Junk shop clothes
Will get you...
There is no reason why
Your mother was a seamstress
Claim soutine never spent
A thrift shop dime
In this life
Lenny bruce never walked
In a dead mans shoes
Even for one night
Junk shop clothes
Will get you nowhere
No summer pavilion
No shooting season
Junk shop clothes
Will get you...
For the rest of your life
And the sun never shone
On your frame pale and wan
05 Don't Trust the Stars (02:25)
Who cares about
your mystic lies
Is it a claim to some reality?
I found myself barefoot
on stones
I don't think
`It just had to be'
I don't think
`It just had to be'
So how can it be pre-arranged
When there's no order anyway
I found myself barefoot
on stones
I don't think
`It just had to be'
It wasn't in the stars that day
Good fortune smile
Good fortune smile
On my ascendant star
??Take heed,?? small talk
Don't trust the stars
I know that it's insufferable
Visionary can be so vain
To think that somewhere
There's a path for you
I know it makes
it seem mundane
It makes it all seem
so mundane
Good fortune smile
Good fortune smile
On my ascendant star
??Take heed,?? small talk
Don't trust the stars
08 Housebreaker (02:57)
When I first met you
You were not house trained
A backwoods trier
The world's your oyster
Your time is mine
What's yours is mine all mine
There's no honour
Amongst thieves
So we worked together
A varied rich
and famous crime
You had your motives
I had mine
For a soul to find
Little piece rub off on mine
Trinkets, memorabilia
Diamonds for the taking
One mans treasure
never meant a thing
When I was housebreaking
Took a buckshot landing
From my most famous client
Must have lost it in the fall
Came away empty handed
When I first met you
I was not housetrained
09 Valet Parking (02:56)
Never saw
your drivers eyes
Or me on parking street
We were planning
your demise
Your chauffeur's tired
But you're still on heat
Downtown,
you're burning down
I'm sick of parking cars...
There are only
two people here
Who are worthy
Of your pool
and your palace
So stand down now
Stand down
You're standing down...
Never thought
I'd see the day
When your pale face
turned grey
Got no guts, got no fame
Your epitaph
Sorely missed
Your unfaithful slave
11 Early Years (02:41)
Early years
were a shroud man
Only a grey cloud
Shot in the dark
Hanging out
with your dad
His plans for revenge
In some hick-town
caravan park
Never keep
a good one down
Early years
were a dreadnought
Waiting to tread board
And my work
down the pan
Hanging round
By the back door
One foot in
the stage door
Some disaffected
fly-by man
Got wired by a cable
Got wild on a table
Scared the shit out of me
All for the free state
The snow and
the greasepaint
I left the singing family
Carico i commenti... con calma
