All The Kids Are Super Bummed Out

Absurdly prolific and never at a loss for something to sing about, Luke Haines could probably write an opera in the time most of us put into making a grocery list. The former leader of the Auteurs and Black Box Recorder, Haines has pursued a solo career that finds him putting his wordiness front and center, and with the help of his friend Peter Buck, hes given us yet another set of surreal broadsides on 2022s All the Kids Are Super Bummed Out. Haines invariably seems more interested in mood and tricky wordplay than in a clean narrative line, but on this set of songs (17 tracks in 68 minutes), hes obsessed with the collision between the politics of armed confrontation and the druggy excesses of a previous generations youth culture. "The Commies Are Coming," "The British Army on LSD," and "45 Revolutions" all deliver an entertaining level of poetic paranoia wrapped up in equal parts surreal wit and a cynics razor-sharp focus. With this latest set of salvos clocking in at double-album length, its a good thing Haines has Peter Buck on board to help write and produce the music. As on Haines and Bucks previous collaboration, 2020s Beat Poetry for Survivalists, the former R.E.M. guitarist has set aside his trademark jangle in favor of a moodier tone that better suits the enthusiastic fatalism of Haines delivery; his melodies and arrangements are an excellent match for the lyrics, and his creative use of an out-of-date Moog synthesizer is a superb match for the reverse nostalgia of the songs. (As is his habit, Buck has also brought some talented friends on board to help him with these sessions, including the Minus 5s Scott McCaughey, the Baseball Projects Linda Pitmon, and longtime Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye.) All The Kids Are Super Bummed Out makes the mistake of front-loading the most exciting numbers in the first half of the album, making the last act tougher sledding than it needs to be as Haines verbal anxieties start to outweigh his wit. But no one who is a fan of Haines previous work is likely to be disappointed with All the Kids Are Super Bummed Out, and hes fortunate to have found a collaborator in Peter Buck, who makes music as strong, idiosyncratic, and witty as the lyrics they support. ~ Mark Deming