Luke Haines & Peter Buck - Beat Poetry For Survivalists3/5
There’s something about pairing the super-English Luke Haines with the very American Peter Buck that somehow makes him even more English. Ever since Haines appeared in the form of The Auteurs back in ‘93 he’s been a constant music maker in several guises. This album of his cast of oddball characters has all the hallmarks of Haines’ previous works. The cool, nervy feel of anxiety with pretty music and xylophones.
Peter Buck lends his gnarly R.E.M. style guitars to bolster and frame Haines’ collection of tall tales although the music stays very much in Luke Haines’ area of stiff upper lip alt-rock/pop. There are diversions into bhangra like on ‘Last Of The Legendary Bigfoot Hunters’ and full glittery attacks on glam rock (one of Luke’s favourite musical styles) with ‘French Man Glam Gang’ which is scuzzy and languid, in a good way of course.
Possibly the closest we come into the area of R.E.M. is on ‘Bobby’s Wild Years’ which has the feel of Buck’s ‘Monster’ era all overdrive and handclaps and maybe ‘Witch Tariff’ which could sit somewhere in the ‘Document’ output.
However this is Haines’ show and he takes rock n roll cliches apart just to turn them on their head like ‘Rock n Roll Ambulance' which even has ‘Hey, hey, hey’ chants throughout it, almost goading rock music into a fight,
It's a solid record if you enjoy the former Black Box Recorder singer, however, if you dislike Haines’ dry, sometimes cold delivery then there will be little to pique your interest as Peter Buck seems to happily be a passenger rather than a driving force on ‘Beat Poetry For Survivalists’ however it is a well written if unsurprising album that could’ve pushed the envelope that bit further and made more use of Buck’s talents.