Phoenix Publishings

[Review] - The Libertines

The Libertines, since their first impression on the music scene in 2002, have had a rocky history. Their band biographies online read more like criminal records or a plot of a soap opera than a track record of a band that NME christened, at one point, the best new band in the UK. Their drug-addled, legally-fraught history gives them a veneer that offers real character to such a band, and their album The Libertines shows this off in a somewhat morose way.
The album feels suitably reckless and unstoppable, as if the entire thing was recorded in some kind of drunken stupor, but the off-hand way in which songs like Don’t Be Shy are constructed gives them a brilliant quality that plays nicely against the peppier songs such as Last Post On The Bugle. Doherty plays with lyrics well and, unlike much of what is offered by the current music scene, gives real character to the vocals in each individual song – from the punk stylings of Arbeit Mach Frei and the rhythmic power of Campaign of Hate, down the scale to the more swaying feel of What Katie Did or The Man Who Would Be King.
There are lowlights, it has to be admitted. Although the album starts with gusto, by the time you’ve listened through to The Saga the album begins to lose momentum – perhaps intentionally, but the ending of the album feels like a let down – What Became Of The Likely lads sounds more like a calm epitaph to the band itself than a punk-fuelled finale that you might expect after the dizzying highs of the album’s opening and eventual middle.
But that is not to say that The Libertines is not an album full of charm, verve and a strange sense of solemn beauty. For people looking for something a little more on the accessible side of The Strokes, or for some more from a band who began life so strongly, The Libertines is a superb adrenaline-packed album.

8/10 - Lyrical, fast, and generally clever.

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posted by FinalSin @ 10:37 AM