Posted in: Musicouching by Jake Greenwood on March 23rd, 2009 | 1 Comment
The Libertines, for two sweet years, were the hottest band in the UK. They were heralded by NME magazine and had a huge fan base growing. Yet by the time their second album reached the number one spot in the UK charts, they had already broken up. Will they ever get back together and pick up where they left off? And if they ever did, what sort of success could they hope for in their second coming? Is there still a call to arms for a musical revolution?
Opinions of The Libertines over the years seem to be formed more around the mythology and controversy the band have generated rather than anything they ever committed to recording. This is because despite having promised us a revolution of British music when they first burst onto the scene, they fell short in delivery with only two albums ever recorded; 2003’s Up The Bracket, and 2004’s self titled The Libertines. These two albums along with the countless rough recordings of jam sessions that made their way onto the internet, generated more than enough hype and hunger for their music so that anything they were to next release would be lapped up whole heartedly by their fans.
But what happened instead? They split up before they could leave their mark in the music world with anything substantial, before they produced a truly brilliant album, one that would be definitive to their sound and one that they would go into the music history books for. I don’t think they ever produced their masterpiece album that they might have had in them.
Pete Doherty and Carl Barat, the two songwriters of The Libertines are still making music. Pete Doherty is now the front man of the rock band Babyshambles and has also just recorded a solo album. Carl Barat, seemingly one step behind his ex band member has called it quits in the second incarnation of the Libertines: his band Dirty Pretty Things, and has announced that he also will be trying his hand at solo work.
So what do I mean by clingers-on then? There has always been the promise of a reunion one day, which has always centred on whether the two frontmen Pete and Carl, could ever get along well enough to work together again. Doherty did his bit at the NME awards 2009, wetting whistles for his old band by telling us that they will definitely be reforming The Libertines within the next couple of years “by hook or by crook.” This promise of a reunion has always been enough of a carrot dangling out in front of fans of The Libertines, to spur us into buying anything of Pete and Carl’s current projects.
Both Babyshambles and Dirty Pretty things have their strengths but none of these band’s songs can compare to the songs written and recorded as The Libertines. You can hear the different components of Pete and Carl’s song writing going off in different tangents and never fully captivating you as a listener like The Libertines did. Pete’s harrowingly romantic lyrics and eerie but melodic guitar playing no longer serves as the perfect counter balance to Carl’s edgy punk riffs and lyrical cynicism. Both styles are good but seem to fall short when not sung in harmony. Pete’s brand new solo single exaggerates this point further; he ends up sounding like Richard Ashcroft instead of the cool Brit-punk he’s supposed to be.
Rynn Michaelz June 16th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Really good analysis of the British indie rock scene; I was/am a big Libertines fan and your take on the way the various bands and scenes in indie have developed, changed and fragmented is spot on. Top stuff.