The Libertines - 'The Libertines'

They love each other. They hate each other. They kiss on stage. They throw punches in the studio. They are alternately brothers, rivals, lovers, enemies. Pete’s killing himself with drugs. And Carl can’t stop him. Pete gets kicked out until he stops his purported 1000 pound a day crack and heroin habit. They stubbornly and infuriatingly communicate in coded messages through the tabloid media. Abusive, dysfunctional, this is pure rock ‘n’ roll mythology. Oh, and then there’s the small matter of the actual music.

It’s hard to extract the music from the saga when everything about the Libertines’ sophomore effort reeks of autobiography. Where “Up the Bracket” was a flailing good party, this second album is the closer. Which one is better depends on how sentimental you are. This one is Pete and Carl’s breakup set to music. From “Can’t Stand me Now” to “What Became of The Likely Lads” and all the tracks in between, it is a bittersweet duel and make-up between the two, like that couple who fuck and fight in equal parts and with equal passion.

On their album cover shot, Carl looks out with defiant and defeated eyes. It looks like he wants to protect Pete from outsiders, but mostly so that he can punch him in the face himself. Pete’s barely there, only exerting himself insomuch as to stretch out his arm like he’s receiving the needle. Every note Pete utters is less a song than a sigh. The effect is hoarse and lacerated, though entirely romantic, especially in contrast to Barat’s steady and full nasal. Their voices couldn’t fit their roles more if they tried.

Pete claims “safety pins, they hold my life together” on the garage doo-wop “What Katie Did.” Similarly, this album nearly falls apart at the seams. Like “Up The Bracket,” the songs smash about, but where the first was a seemingly tireless, rollicking good show, the lyrics on this latest effort pack the songs with tragic and meaningful intention. From beginning to end, it is a ‘will they/won’t they’ affair. Essentially, the back and forth of the songs make you wonder how many times can they break up and get back? It starts with “Can’t Stand Me Now,” where they step on each other’s lines, sing the same words a second apart. At a London show before their break-up, Pete stormed off stage in a fit of drug-induced paranoia during the chorus of this song because he thought Carl was throwing hateful side-glances his way. This track, their drama, is shambolic, confrontational and utterly thrilling. But then the next minute, Pete is reminiscing of “all the memories of the pubs and the clubs and the tubs we shared together” in the lovely “Music When the Lights Go Out.” On the closing two tracks of the album, it seems, finally, the last exchange:

On “The Saga,” Pete, conceding: “I dig my grave, and the truth’s just too hard to comprehend, you just pretend there isn’t a problem.”
In “What Became Of The Likely Lads,” Carl, resignedly: “I tried to make you see but you don’t want to know. What became of the Likely Lads? What became of the dreams we had? What became of forever?”

This is not to say the party’s gone flat for nostalgia for the “Good Ol’ Days.” If anything, the Libertines are a band of the present. If they had a mission statement, it would be to live for the moment. They still come out guns blazing. On songs like, “Last Post On The Bugle,” they still sound like they could stomp out the floor below them. And they can still make a man quiver (Pete and Carl both) with melodies on “Music When The Lights Go Out” and “France.” And Gary Powell’s drums still drive to the heart of why the Libertines made it this far in the first place.

But what part music, and what part mythology? The messy conflation of the two are what make rock bands legendary. Luckily for the Libertines, the messier it is, the more fucked up they get, the better it sounds. Unfortunately, this might be their last album, and the whole thing is underpinned with a sense that this is the party to end all parties because Pete took it a step too far and let the myth topple the music.

Chaniga Vorasarun