Exuding a barbed, sexy impishness, Auteurs mainman Luke Haines may be the grooviest pop fantasist since glitter guru Marc Bolan. His guitar leads echoing Mick Ronson's, he's plainly a glam rocker at heart. A terrific sequel to last year's New Wave, Cowboy finds him giving further shape to his fascination with all that darkly glimmers: femmes fatales, taboo love, cracked actors ("Lenny Valentino" imagines a dream fusion of Lenny Bruce and Rudolph Valentino). On cello-graced fare like "New French Girlfriend," "The Upper Classes" and "I'm a Rich Man's Toy," he drops cool names (Bob Dylan, Truman Capote, Toulouse-Lautrec); his casual, literate wordplay stings and delights. And he can turn out catchy tunes like a jukebox. (RS 684)

PAUL EVANS