New Wave is 21 today. To celebrate this momentous occasion I am giving myself over - for better or for worse - to the uncompromising snarl and dark mind of Mr Luke Haines for the day, in order to spend some time working through the studio albums of his don’t-call-them-britpop band The Auteurs. Chronological, as ever, is the order of the day, which means the birthday boy is up first, followed by Now I’m a Cowboy and the fantastically bleak After Murder Park, culminating in the oft-overlooked, post-millennial and slightly after the fact final Auteurs album How I Learned to Love the Bootboys.

Depending on how I get on, I might find time to drop a little Baader Meinhof in as well.

Provisional order of service is as follows:

  1. New Wave (1993)
  2. Now I’m A Cowboy (1994)
  3. After Murder Park (1996)
  4. How I Learned to Love the Bootboys (2001)

Afterword…

The albums have been listened to, the reviews have been written, the links have been added. And now, sufficient time has passed for most of the vicarious cynicism to wash off.