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The Libertines
The Libertines
Time for Heroes: The Best of the Libertines
(Rough Trade, 2007)
So this is the band the crack smoking, kitten abusing, baby-faced elf warrior known as Pete Doherty rocketed to fame in. What a disappointment. They’re just another cheeky Brit-pop group tossing off boring, histrionic guitar lines and half-spoken vocals. How come the most insane rock abusers are always in the weakest bands? Perry Farrell, Evan Dando, this Doherty cat… how does crack not force songwriters to create hyper, super-aggressive music along the lines of Bad Brains or Minor Threat? This sonic pabulum does not sound like the brainchild of anyone with increased blood pressure/adrenaline. Maybe everything I learned in high school Health class was a complete lie (or I just wasn’t paying close enough attention).
I’m also slightly offended a band with only two full-length albums to its credit has released a “Best of.” I guess you can get away with all kinds of shady stuff when you’re dubbed one of the most influential acts of the past decade. Seems like NME crowns a different band every six months with that title. That’s England for you—over-hyping everything. Anyone who picks up a guitar in that country could be dubbed the Second Coming by the excitable music press. I’d kind of like to send a chimp with a six string over there and see how quickly Bonzo can get a gold record. Wait a minute—that already happened once—Lancelot Link and the Evolution Revolution. Okay, I’m not sure it went gold, but that all-chimp band’s bubblegum pop record was pretty damn popular.
To these hype-wary American ears, the Libertines are just a pastiche of the Strokes and the Jam, which is kind of like mixing Kool-Aid and Hawaiian Punch. It’s sugary, it’s sweet, and it’ll give you a stomachache after two gulps. I don’t care what those twits say about Doherty and his posse introducing the iPod generation to Oscar Wilde and touching off a new generation of poets. Nike introduced me to the Stooges, but you don’t see me wearing their silly swoosh-emblazoned shoes. We don’t need scab-covered model daters to remind us how awesome The Importance of Being Earnest is over on these shores, thank you very much.
There are a couple of crisp attempts at Oasis on this “Best Of” that are kind of cute— namely, “Don’t Look Back Into the Sun” and “What Katie Did.” They fall short of even the weakest Gallagher Brothers B-side, but hey, at least the Libbys took a stab. Otherwise, Time for Heroes offers nothing later acts such as the Arctic Monkeys and the Fratellis didn’t improve upon. Now those guys sounded like real crackheads.
Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]
12 Comments
I’d have liked you to have listened to their songs before writting this.
I don’t know about these geezers in the Libertines, but if I ran for president, that Lancelot Link song would be my campaign anthem.
While I agree that it’s stupid to come out with a hits record at this point, on all else you say I have one comment: You’re nuts. First of all, the fact that you have not heard any of their stuff in the last 5 years is pathetic. Up The Bracket is a truly great record – every song features the thrill of shambolic victory snatched from the jaws of chaotic defeat. But what else should we expect from someone who discovered the Stooges through Nike (huh?). How about that band Led Zeppelin from the Cadillac commercial – might be worth checking out, no?
I think this is a hilarious review. Right on.
Listening to music is overrated and hardly essential to the music reviewing process. At least I spelled everything right. Also, I looked so cool when I was writing this review it’s not even funny.
Murgatroyd, I love your name. You should sell it to Nike so I can see it more often.
The only thing I regret about this review is the placement of the descriptive phrases in the first sentence. I should have arranged them as such: crack-smoking, kitten-abusing, baby-faced elf warrior. I don’t know what I was thinking.
Great review James – if great music reviews were based on personal attacks, England-bashing and virtually no commentary on anything musical. Is this what passes for music criticism nowadays? Next time, try listen to the CD your reviewing more than once instead of simply reading tabloid articles about your subject. By the way, the American press has been known to overhype a few things as well.
Okay, has every member of the Libertines left a comment now? Jeez, second generation bomo garage acts are so touchy.
James…you sound like a total TWAT
Hey James, you have an interesting insight on this band. Which makes me wonder, do you know the Littl’ans (hit single feat. Pete Doherty)? If so, what do you think of them?
Jify – I just looked the Littl’ans song up on YouTube. It’s struck me about as same as the Libertines. Melody’s okay, but the rest of it kinda bores me.
Do you like music, or do you just like writing cutting and condescending commentary?