You know they suit each other (Up The Bracket - The Libertines)

Member Name: Wolfzilla

Product:	Up The Bracket - The Libertines
Date:	24/08/08 (104 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A whole lot of great songs

Disadvantages: Radio America is a bit pants, nothing new

Up The Bracket, the debut album from indie royalty The Libertines is a bit of a strange album to try and review. It would have been good to have discovered the band in their earliest days, before the press got a hold of them, to be able to have heard them before your views were tainted, either by the ridiculous overhyping they received in the music press or the negative spin put on the band by the tabloids thanks to Peter Doherty's less than squeaky clean recreational habits.

Though at the same time, looking at the album 6 years on, when the band are long split-up, the spin-off projects losing, or in some cases never gaining steam and the press deciding its more fun to follow Amy Winehouse (perhaps due to her more 'mature' music making her meltdowns seem more tragic) it does make it possible to judge it in ways impossible upon its 2002 release.

Spawned from the turn of the century's 'Garage Rock Revival' (read: slightly punkier indie bands with scruffy hair and retro clothes), The Libertines were Britain's answer to the already decidedly British sounding American superstars The Strokes, who released their debut album a year prior. The same poster boy looks, overly expensive yet messy haircuts and second hand military tunics, but with slightly rougher edges, more Brit-centric lyrics and a frontman pairing with incredible chemistry. Yet, despite their now seemingly all conquering status as this generation's icons of British rock, the band weren't exactly an overnight sensation. Debut single What A Waster didn't exactly set the charts alight (possibly due to it's less than radio-friendly chorus and subject matter), and when the album released it wasn't exactly to any great fanfare. Amusingly, the NME gave it an average review, a fact they seem to have tried to paper over while taking over at the controls of the bandwagon when it became clear that the band had something to them. Indeed, it wasn't until the band split up a few times, Doherty went to jail and the second album was released you started to get Libertines t-shirts in HMV.

It's hard to say if What A Waster's failure as a single led to its exclusion from the album, but at first glance it seems a questionable decision. There aren't a lot of standout song titles on the record, Time For Heroes, Up The Bracket and possibly I Get Along are the only real 'headliners' that casual fans of the band will probably have heard of. However, upon listening to album it becomes clear that it really does capture the essence of the band; judge it on what you've remember reading and miss out on some great bits.

I'm not going to try and put forward the argument that Up The Bracket is one of the greatest albums ever, that it changed music forever or that Peter Doherty, Carl Barat, John Hassal and Gary Powell combine, Megazord-style, into the musical equivalent of Christ, because it's simply not true. Yet at the same time, Up The Bracket is a damn good album, with a lot of really great songs that don't seem to have aged at all, and I can't really think of many albums released this decade better than it.

It's worth noting off the bat that the album isn't exactly a shining example of musical diversity, though it does mix it up a bit more than most albums 'inspired' by it. It's mostly jaggy guitar driven indie. Vertigo, Time For Heroes, Boys In The Band, the title track, Begging and album closer I Get Along all follow this description, so how can an album where the majority of it sounds the same be so good? I've myself gutted bands like Hard Fi for doing this, but see, what makes it so good is what sets the Libertines apart from their indie brethren for me; Doherty and Barat combined are just better at writing songs than any band like them. Take album opener Vertigo, twice after verses there are little guitar solos that seem to cut out from the rhythm guitar sharply and stylishly. They aren't particularly difficult, Eddie Van Halen could probably do them with his feet, but they sound flashy, and it's hard to picture bands like the Courteeners coming up with anything as cool. Doherty and Barat's lyrics are also a cut above their contemporaries, and while they are shockingly derivative of many bands, particularly The Clash (made most obvious by Clash lead guitarist Mick Jones' presence behind the production desk) but while the Libertines may be derivative, at the same time they do so with a bit of panache. Time For Heroes, and later on in the album The Good Old Days' tales of urban decay in Britain may seem to have been spawned from listening to The Clash for a few months solid, compare them to a song with similar lyrical intend like The Kaiser Chiefs' 'I Predict A Riot' and how much more class the Libertines' tracks have is almost cringe inducing. While none of those tracks may push the boundaries of music, all of them bar maybe Beginning, which is fairly average, are brilliant little slices of anthemic indie. Swaggering album opener Vertigo is a real favourite of mine, as is the ridiculously frantic, infectious chorus title track likewise. Album closer I Get Along is not only perfect in terms of placement on the set list, but also almost perfect at achieving what it sets out to, fist pumping sing-a-long sillieness with a bit of defiant swagger thrown in for good measure.

Where the album also shines is that when the band do try their hand at slightly different sounds, they almost always pull it off brilliantly. Death On The Stairs and Tell The King are beautiful examples of the type of melancholy, lovelorn indie pop that Pete & The Pirates are currently plying. Horrorshow and The Boy Looked At Johnny are straight up, in-you-face punk tirades set to catchy hooks, The Good Old Days' may highlight the band's sometimes wince-inducing habit of pretentious lyrics with "If you've lost your faith in love and music the end won't be long", but in the context of the song's downbeat, bass heavy existence the lyric works (no it tends to be when people say it, usually presenting it in a hilariously melodramatic way, often on their myspace/bebo/facebook/whatever the kids use these days it becomes embarrassing) in no small part down to Doherty's delivery of it. See that's another thing the Libertines have that few of their contemporaries have in their favour, 2 brilliant frontmen. Yes, I've had the displeasure of seeing Doherty's 'performances' with Babyshambles, but a pre-fame, pre-sycophant following Doherty genuinely had a talent for vocal delivery. His vulnerable, ragged voice brings an air of emotion Julian Casablancas could only dream of to the Libertines early work. When it plays off Barat's more swaggering vocal delivery it creates a brilliant contrast. Though what makes their singing all the better is the fact they don't feel the need to stick rigidly to these descriptions. So when Doherty does develop a bit of arrogance in the title track and The Boy Looked At Johnny, its almost against the run of play, and really grabs your attention. Likewise Barat's job on Death On The Stairs highlights he can perform with a more vulnerable side himself. The only thing letting down the side is really the band's acoustic effort, the careless, and unfortunately, uninspiring Radio America, which kind of meanders on needlessly.

1 out of 12 being a stinker is a pretty good record, especially when you consider there's only 1 of those 11 remaining tracks I regard as average. I guess this is what I was talking about earlier when I said hindsight grants the album some favour that nobody could have predicted in 2002. It brings with it proof of last ability. Bands are still appearing today playing music in the same style as The Libertines, hell the band members are still releasing music in a similar vein, yet Up The Bracket, an album 6 years old, still sounds fresher and more invigorating than new songs released in the same sound. That's the real triumph. Another 6 years down the road, I doubt anyone will still be listening to The Enemy, but I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say people will still be buying, and still enjoying Up The Bracket. It may not have changed music forever, it may not be particularly original, but it's filled to the rafters with brilliantly written songs, and at the end of the day that's almost as good in my book.

Summary: Up The Bracket may not be the greatest album ever, but its one of the better albums of the decade