So here we have it, 11 years on and finally a new Libertines album. This reviewer will be the first to admit that this pre-release stream I’m reviewing feels like the Holy Grail… and then I realized it’s just another bloody album.
It’s not a bad album by anyone’s standards. Several of the tracks are going to be instant classics among those who follow the journey of the great ship Albion. But, there’s also a fair few tracks that could be even be considered a little embarrassing.
Opener ‘Barbarians’ almost sums the album up in one track. Great verses, with some decent enough lyrics and a decent opening riff. But that bloody chorus! I’d like to put the blame on producer Jake Gosling for all the poppy mass chant style choruses, but then how the heck otherwise do you present a set of lyrics as “All I want is to scream out loud / And have it up with the mental crowd”. Come on!
Lead single ‘Gunga Din’ has proved for a good proportion of Libs fans to be quite the grower, and in the context of the album it’s pretty easy to see why it was chosen. The best riff on the album, some belting lyrics, focusing around both Pete and Carl’s demons, and perhaps the one time where the gang style chorus actually works on this album. Although the random shouting to close the song is an absurd idea at best. Even if the reggae vibe is disorientating at first, after a few listens that tides over.
‘Fame And Fortune’ is one that some fans will enjoy for its hamminess, while others will be nearing smashing their CD’s up for its lack of drama and grit. It’s as cockney as they have ever got. Lyrically it’s a smashing recount of the bands early years. Being dragged to legendary indie clubs Trash and Lordy Lord and signing to Rough Trade. But like ‘Barbarians’, that chorus sung in gang style, with added “knees up mother brown” is so frustrating. “Tin soldiers responding to a call / To Camden we will crawl / One and all”. Jeez!
Not all of the tracks on this album have misfire moments. ‘Anthem For Doomed Youth’ and ‘You’re My Waterloo’ are Carl and Pete’s respective ballads and both are truly wonderful tracks. From Carl’s evocative dramatization “Yes we thought that they were brothers / Then they half murdered each other” to Pete’s retrospective romanticism “And you’re my Waterloo/ I’ll be your Stanley Park”.
Carl’s delivery on ‘Anthem For Doomed Youth’ is low pitched, mumbling in the verse, peaking on the odd line. On the verse it’s almost told in light and shade, like the way a decent author colours a book. Musically it’s non-complex with simple chords allowing Barat to take centre stage and as he sings “Life could be so handsome/Life could be so gay/We’re going nowhere/But nowhere, nowhere’s on our way” the song takes on beauty and gravitas not seen in indie in years.
Pete’s delivery on Waterloo is more straight up and sweet. It’s classic ballad Pete, and it’s all the better for it. Plied with references to Hancock and Garland, it could have gone either way, but the overstuffing of nostalgia and Libertine clichés almost makes the track more endearing in some odd way. The chorus sweeps and glides at just the right levels, just enough to be effective in the ballad sense but not enough to be poppy or sound like some god awful siren song. We know the band had wanted this to be special, and it’s fair to say they achieved it.
Despite reports of synths taking this album over, the only real use of them is on ‘Belly Of The Beast’, which almost has a country twang. The track shuffles along nicely, but doesn’t really have the substance you’d want from a Libs classic. In good news, the gang chorus vibe is at least toned down here… oh, also the reggae vibes of ‘Gunga Ding’ are back again.
‘Iceman’ is a hypnotic song that’s clearly about the elephant in the room. “A suedehead and his pipe”…well who on earth could that be? Lyrically it’s a lot more nuanced and subtle than the totally obvious Pete smokes crack clichés. It’s biting and honest, but subtle and storytelling in a way that draws you in alongside the simple melody. It’s the sound of The Libertines going back to basics and serving all the better for it. This rise in proceedings is followed by ‘Heart Of The Matter’, which at it’s worse is uncomplicated and joyous indie, and at it’s best is probably the most classic Libs track on the album. A straight vocal divide between Carl and Pete, the pairing of their melancholy and fury works well on this song.
‘Fury Of Chonburi’ is perhaps the most straight up aggressive track on Anthems For Doomed Youth. In terms of sound, it’s relenting and furious. Pair that up with side-swiping delivery from both halves of our two famously tempestuous singers and it makes for something special. “And I do wish him well / I got him under my spell / I think he’ll do just fine / If he can toe the line”. Carl sings on this track with no great uncertainty as to the target.
‘The Milkman’s Horse’ and ‘Glasgow Coma Scale Blues’ are perhaps the best representation of the polar opposition that seems to haunt the band. Part of them (most of all you suspect, Pete) want’s the popular adoration that comes with writing infectious melody with a timeless quality. While they can’t shake of the incessant need to turn up the amps and do their best The Clash impressions. This disjoin has been an endearing factor on previous Libs releases but with Sam Smith and Sheeran man Jake Gosling at the helm, it’s a lot more noticeably jarring than before. This isn’t the boys on Rough Trade that’s for sure.
‘Dead For Love’ is an ice-cold ballad, but it’s a suitable ending to the album. It’s blunt in lyrics, as you’d probably expect from some of this generation’s best writers. But in reality it kind of peaks off quickly and on repeated listens you may find yourself terminating the album’s playback early.
So in summary, it’s a weak Libs album. But that’s only when set up against the context of two indie behemoths. If we were to compare say Catfish & The Bottlemen or Peace against those two albums, they’d probably struggle to peak through the 5/10 mark. But that’s the legacy the band always knew they’d be competing against.
In many ways it’s a commendable exercise that hasn’t resulted in the yield that most fans would have had wet dreams over. But it’s a forward motion with promising signs for the future. Would it have sounded any better with Mick Jones at the Helm? It’s hard to say but the band probably need to avoid the popped up indie route next time. For a band that’s always played best of tension and beauty, there wasn’t enough tension to make this work as a full album. That’s said, it’s always welcome to see the boys in the band back again, and compared to much of the indie fare released this year, this still stacks up pretty alright!
