Toronto - Albion, Albion where has thou gone? Back in 2002, The Libertines were on top of the world. Well, old world, as in England. Seems like they could do no wrong, their guitar based celebration of the working class, along with renegade street gigs captured the imagination and hope of all young English lads. They inspired people to wear classic British uniforms as jackets and all in all, revived garage rock in England much like The Strokes did States side. I still remember me and Vik walking out of a Franz Ferdinand concert in 2004, Vik pointing to a guy wearing military garb and yelling ‘It’s Pete Doherty man!’. Haha. Classic.
Fast forward to 2008. The Libertines have broken up, Pete Doherty is more known for heroine and dating Kate Moss then his immense talent for writing up melodic rock songs, and Carl Barat still sounds like that jaded girlfriend that can’t let things go. Forming his own band - Dirty Pretty Things, it seems like good ole Carl is still trying to live his past glory. 2008 sees the DPT released their second album - Romance at Short Notice, off Vertigo Records.
I’ll admit, I was a bit disappointed at the DPT’s first album - Waterloo to Anywhere. Despite a stellar first single “Bang Bang You’re Dead” (I wonder who that one was about), the album didn’t quite have the same melodic songwriting draw that previous Libs albums did. Sure it had some of the manic energy that those albums did, but something was just missing.
“Romance at Short Notice” is definitely a different album. It sounds less angry and makes an valiant attempt at bringing in a different sound. That’s not to say this album strays far from the guitar based lad rock formula. However, this band does have more lighter affairs, and the songs takes on a more relaxed, melodic approach - which in my mind, was one of the strengths of those Libertine albums. It’s a shame that everything these two put out will be compared to those two albums, but that’s life. Stellar tracks include “Faultlines”, “Plastik Hearts” and lead single “Tired of England”. Overall, it’s not a horrible album, but it’s nothing special, which is pretty sad, because the Libertines probably could have been
2/5
On a side note, I remember walking out of a concert once, and I had a sweater on that said ‘Manchester’ on the back, and some bloke came up to me and said ‘Mate, you from Manchester? where bouts?’. I was like..err no. He seemed really disappointed. Seriously, If I wore a Disneyland shirt, does not mean I’m from Disneyland.
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