Follow-up to the Christie Malry's Own Double Entry soundtrack album comes more poison pop from the ex-Auteurs & Black Box Recorder main man. The Oliver Twist Conspiracy (subtitled, Or What is Wrong With Popular Cult... more »ure) highlights Haines distinctive songwriting & is yet more splendid stuff, cast in the same characteristic Haines-ian mode of shabby glamour & twisted tunefulness that we've come to expect from the self-styled Curmudgeon Of Pop. Arrogantly wonderful & wonderfully arrogant. 2001.« less
Follow-up to the Christie Malry's Own Double Entry soundtrack album comes more poison pop from the ex-Auteurs & Black Box Recorder main man. The Oliver Twist Conspiracy (subtitled, Or What is Wrong With Popular Culture) highlights Haines distinctive songwriting & is yet more splendid stuff, cast in the same characteristic Haines-ian mode of shabby glamour & twisted tunefulness that we've come to expect from the self-styled Curmudgeon Of Pop. Arrogantly wonderful & wonderfully arrogant. 2001.
Luke Haines returns with his new Oliver Twist Manifesto
Johnny A. Hodge | RABBIT HASH, KENTUCKY | 07/25/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"a cool new cd from the Auteurs frontman and Black Box Recorder artist...the cd has many Phantom of the Opera type sounds mixed with Haines bitter lyrics about the changing world...his motives are not always clear, and yet that lends to the appreciation of the work. The best tracks are Oliver Twist, Mr and Mrs. Solanas, Discomania, and Christ. This record is definitely not for the mass audience..but those who appreciate Dylan, the Smiths, and attitude will savor the sounds"
Another sinister and incredible classic from LUKE HAINES!
Todd E. Jones | Edison, NJ USA | 11/09/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is LUKE HAINES's first solo LP and it's just as amazing as the latest AUTEURS stuff. (my personal fav is the BAADER MEINHOFF album... that's a perfect classic!). This Lp is great.. short.. but great. There's more ELECTRONIC beeps and sounds on it but plenty of guitars. My favorites are: "What Happens When We Die", "I Shot Sarah Lucas", and "The Spook Manifesto"... all songs are great though. This is NOT a happy lp.. but if you are an AUTEURS fan, you should know what to expect. This is another great LP from the sinister and wild mind of LUKE HAINES."
The Bitterest Man in London
Michael Kulikowski | Knoxville, TN | 08/15/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Crankier than Mark E. Smith, more vindictive than Morrissey, Luke Haines is the black cloud inside Britpop's silver lining. Given that he peaked with After Murder Park five years ago, Haines has still managed to produce a startlingly good body of work in the Baader Meihof and Black Box Recorder records of the more recent past.The present disk is an improvement on the last Auteurs album, though it never reaches as high as the giddy, tongue-in-cheek single The Rubettes. Instead, what we get is a number of nasty little songs aimed at pop culture in general and the trend-setters of London's club scene in particular. A couple of tracks, and a number of the recurrent musical motifs, are repeated from the soundtrack to Christie Malry's Own Double Entry. Haines' ability to sprinkle his rather basic melodies with half-subliminal Hammer Horror sound effects and strings has grown over the years, though his deployment of the most basic drum machine tracks annoys. Still, the title track, Christ, and the Spook Manifesto rank with the best of the man's work. Worth getting it before it's deleted -- which won't take long given the determinedly unfashionable quality of everything Haines does."