The Auteurs

Luke Haines was too sardonic and overeducated to rouse the masses at Wembley Stadium, so he deployed power chords as a framework for his unrequited, self- referential show biz obsessions. On the band's debut, "Don't Trust the Stars" and "Starstruck" pun off the connections between astrological coincidences and showbiz success, while "American Guitars" mocked rock- god aspirations as well as the British Haines' own aesthetic incompatibility with such aspirations.

New Wave offered a survey of that low- rent district where the privileged bohemian poor rub shoulders with the criminal underground, a world of lack more than want, grasping and pathetic and lively. Haines conflates cynicism and charm so freely that his targets rarely matter: When he discredits thrift- shop chic with a casual "Lenny Bruce never walked in a dead man's shoes," the elliptical angle of his assault is the hook. By the time of After Murder Park Haines was hinting at dangers and calamities that he couldn't quite pin down with lyrics or music. So, naturally, he orchestrated a likeably tense little one- off concept album about German terrorists Baader Meinhof.

Having learned a bit of electronics from that detour, Haines formed Black Box Recorder with Jesus and Mary Chain drummer John Moore and pert, pouty, posh Sarah Nixey on vocals. Right as rain and just as damp, The Facts of Life watches synth patterns trickle past spare drumbeats in a languid contest to see which can seem the most innocuous. Call it drip- hop—aural drizzle as an indicator of romantic malaise. But just because Nixey coos with the calm tenderness of a latent sociopath doesn't mean she wants to hurt you. Passionoia is a bit more wan musically, but two Nixey set pieces play off her prim sexpot persona smashingly. On the title cut, she's a frosty, disciplinary headmistress; on "Andrew Ridgley," she eulogizes the go-go '80s from the perspective of a poor little rich girl. (KEITH HARRIS)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide