Spring Break
Brit-rock best-of bears witness to band's bygone brilliance
The Libertines' best-of compilation, released today, surveys the band's two studio albums and other releases. The band saw popularity during the garage rock revival of the early 2000s, but is no longer together.
by Andrea Fineman
Managing Editor
Arts | 12/4/07
Posted online at 11:00 PM EST on 12/3/07
/ Last updated at 12:55 AM EST on 12/3/07
The question when faced with a Libertines best-of might be, "Why?" The British rock band, part of the garage-rock revival led by the Strokes and the Hives (both of whom the Libertines opened for on tour) during the early part of this century, released only two studio albums and a handful of singles and EPs. The band's releases gained a lot of press, especially in its native England, but the promise shown in those two albums never came to fruition. The four-piece flamed out not long after the release of its second, self-titled album when singer and frequent gossip-column subject Pete Doherty's drug use became too much for co-songwriter and guitarist Carl Barât. To me, this collection serves best not as collection of the band's most popular works, but rather as a testament to the greatness Doherty accomplished before getting tangled up in heroin, crack and Kate Moss.
This best-of compilation consists of 13 upbeat, sometimes raucous, always quite British-sounding tracks from the Libertines' oeuvre. The band's songwriters did not draw from a huge number of genres or influences; thus the band's two popular songs from The Libertines, "Can't Stand Me Now" and "Don't Look Back into the Sun," could almost be superimposed on each other without much dissonance. That said, those two songs are perfect British pop rock songs-melodic, with textured, catchy guitar passages and cute, sometimes self-effacing lyrics. The premiere British music magazine New Musical Express placed "Can't Stand Me Now" at number 13 on its list of the 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever.
The song "What a Waster," from the band's first album, Up the Bracket, is a weaker spot on the album. This is somewhat ironic; according to the Wikipedia page about the single, a "waster" is someone who "is an excessive user of drugs and alcohol." (The definition is not hard to divine after all, I suppose.) The page further says that the song was originally left off Up the Bracket, but was added on at the end of re-issued versions of the album. I'd have advocated that this 12th-hour add-on be left off the compilation because the best-of release is evidently not a fans-only release.
This best-of compilation consists of 13 upbeat, sometimes raucous, always quite British-sounding tracks from the Libertines' oeuvre. The band's songwriters did not draw from a huge number of genres or influences; thus the band's two popular songs from The Libertines, "Can't Stand Me Now" and "Don't Look Back into the Sun," could almost be superimposed on each other without much dissonance. That said, those two songs are perfect British pop rock songs-melodic, with textured, catchy guitar passages and cute, sometimes self-effacing lyrics. The premiere British music magazine New Musical Express placed "Can't Stand Me Now" at number 13 on its list of the 50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever.
The song "What a Waster," from the band's first album, Up the Bracket, is a weaker spot on the album. This is somewhat ironic; according to the Wikipedia page about the single, a "waster" is someone who "is an excessive user of drugs and alcohol." (The definition is not hard to divine after all, I suppose.) The page further says that the song was originally left off Up the Bracket, but was added on at the end of re-issued versions of the album. I'd have advocated that this 12th-hour add-on be left off the compilation because the best-of release is evidently not a fans-only release.
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