Before I continue, I would like any The Libertines fans to take note that if you are expecting a repeat to The Libertines of Up The Bracket, then you would be fairly disappointed. Pete Doherty is in Babyshambles now. If would be senseless to compare this band to his former one. Or to talk about his off stage habits and his fascination among the British media.
Having said that it would be stupid not to do some comparison and talk a little bit of Kate Moss. So on to my review.
Down in Albion started out amazingly with Le Belle Et La Béte with samples of the lovely Kate Moss. Which followed by Fuck Forever, a crappy remastered grunge number for kids still into that other crappy band called Nirvana. Quite unnecessary really but somehow Pete thought it necessary. Maybe his drug habit screwed him up.
A'rebours followed the continued departure from the stylistic approach that ended in Up The Bracket. Pipedown tried to do another Nirvana halfway through and it failed miserably.
Kilamangiro, as expected, did notdisappointt with this official remixed album version. Pentonville and Sticks & Stones on the other hand has reggae influence. I kid you not. That may be a good thing for some of you but I wanted to break the CD when those two came up.
Albion on the other hand debuts with acoustic, more in line with Doherty's free online album. And then there was The 32rd December, a very good track by any standard.
So some pretty good tracks hampered with quite some rubbish ones. Quite frankly this album doesn't reach the hype it was supposed to be. The tracks do not feel right together. There is no flow altogether, just a bunch of mismatched tracks; some good, many bad; put together at the last minute.
It is undeniable that Pete Doherty is an excellent song writer. But this album sounded as if he wrote half of them drunk (good) and the other half drunker (bad). In different planets. With his band no where in sight. It was disorientating. Some might even say misguided.
Bloody shambolic.
3 comments:
~ loving the review... thanks! ~
Not a Clash fan then, Jon? I also don't see the Nirvana comparisons - Cobain was never as funny as Doherty, and humour is what sets Doherty apart from most of his crowd.
Unimated, Thanks,
Steve, I love both (see review) Killamangiro and The 32rd December, both of which are very Clash like. But just because it was produced by Mick Jones and I hated this album doesn't mean I ain't a Clash fan.
Also I wasn't comparing him to Kurt Cobain, a total screw up who took life too seriously. But there are elements of grunge in Fuck Forever and Pipedown, which if compared to Doherty's previous work in The Libertines, is pretty shocking.
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