Luke Haines is an incredibly talented chap. Not content with sitting at the high table of rock’n’roll, having been instrumental in what would become known as Brit-pop in the early 90s, or as he put it in his 2009 autobiography, Britpop and My Part in Its Downfall, Luke has also been the subject of – and starred in – the documentary film Art Will Save the World by director Niall McCann, known for his work with Mogwai and Franz Ferdinand in the film that documented Chemikal Underground Records, Lost in France. The purveyor of many bands, Luke has continued his working relationship with former REM guitarist, Peter Buck. This is a partnership that appears to be working well and is “…getting better all time” to paraphrase The Beatles, and who’d have thought that 2020s Beat Poetry For Survivalists would have been the start of such a fantastical journey?
Haines appears to collect bands like a stamp collector collects perforated pieces of paper, and having failed to become a cliché, they sailed past their second album, All the Kids Are Super Bummed Out. Here I wrote that this album was “…complete with disjointed thoughts…” fitting together anything but disjointed. Here we find their third album, Going Down To The River, To Blow My Mind which is a remarkable piece of work. These like-minded musical minds have produced an album comprising 13 extremely quaffable tunes. Its content flows easily from one another, keeping the album’s momentum as it progresses. The bizarre ‘The Pink Floyd Research Group‘, opens with Haines’s low, gruff vocal pairing with Buck’s steady, mid-80s country-tinged guitar. Its slick guise cuts like a knife through butter and onto the album’s title track ‘Going down to the river to blow my mind’, with its’ strangulated guitar and narration of “…I’ve got nowhere to be, or can be there anytime…”, summing up the album. It’s not that they’re dismissing this work, I’m taking it as a feeling of confidence that they’re able to enjoy this process of creation and, listening to the album, I’m sure you will agree, they have every right to be confident.
Following this is ‘Hot Artists’, where A-listers brush shoulders with their ilk, competing for column inches and the front page. Later in the song Haines announces that “…wax museums last forever…”, suggesting that this might be a final resting place. The Rolling Stones could only manage 19, whereas Haines and Buck tell of ’56 Nervous Breakdowns’. Here we find a number full of energy, rock guitar and a sea of beat and which continues the theme of bangin’ tunes that will soon find themselves taking up head space. Then to ‘Sufi Devotional’, a Western take on Islamic mysticism, with Buck’s dreamy guitar breaks and a vocal suggesting that we might be under “…psychic attack…”. I love Haines’ lyric “…I saw a sign in the sky, it said – there ain’t no joke, you’re under the Pope’, it left me howling. ‘Children of the Air’ follows, which seems to be suggesting that those born to IVF, are a stateless race, but who are in this context hugely cool, whilst at the same time being an undefined being, neither fish, nor foul, nor biped. Then, to an issue the World thought it might have seen the back of following perestroika. ‘Nuclear war’, is an issue that is once again all too real, the song illustrating just how close this might be, as leaders of the West clash with those of the East. The narration”…come, come nuclear war, nuclear war – come-come nuclear war…”, brings home the reality of the issue. Anyone for Kenny Everett?
What follows is ‘Me and the Octopus’, at times a chaotic romp, whilst begging the question “how good a musician would an Octopus be?”. Then it’s to the calmer, ‘In Rock‘, a bible for these two musicians of god-like quality and a tune perfect for the end of the day. But wake up, I didn’t say it was over, as ‘Judy Chicago‘ stands up and is another romp in the garden of rock’n’roll. With raw guitar and pounding beats, this appears to be on the subject of real life, feminist, artist, art educator and writer, Judy Sylvia Cohen, aka Judy Chicago. Now in her 80s, it did make me feel a little uncomfortable when Haines opens with “We like you, now you’re almost gone. When you’re finally dust, we like you, we like you…”. Although this sharp wit is familiar to Luke Haines, so subjects featured should not feel anything but love. ‘Papa John‘ follows, not the Pizza franchise as many might at first assume, rather John Phillips, a founding member of The Mamas and The Papas and well-documented user of narcotics. This is approached in the song and complete with pipes, rich guitar and lyric which starts “I landed on the moon, with Papa John…”, well, where else? This is one hell of a trip. You won’t be disappointed with the penultimate number, ‘Radical Bookshop’, a reading emporium we would all like to visit and one I’m certain these two musicians have on their reading list. With a psych musical pattern, whose drumbeat carries you on, this is a place where we all can ‘read’, if you get what I mean. And as we ride out on ‘Special Guest Appearance‘, a slowed tune, which references Sharon Gainsbourg, Beck, Cancer and Death. A very real account of life, I think we all can agree.
This is an album I have had the pleasure of being in the company of for 6 weeks at the time of writing, and my estimation of it has increased from a high point, to an even higher one. I said this album “flows” and like a river it does, keeping its identity real. Here, Haines and Buck have written a masterpiece, one that I hope will not be their last.
