The Libertines
Up The Bracket (2002)

Not so long ago the landscape of British music was a wasteland. Once the Britpop bubble had burst, ‘Radiohead’ were the only band of any note to emerge through the woodwork. Then came ‘The Strokes’ and the rest of the New York scene to save us from death by ‘Travis’. As great as all these bands were the UK still didn’t have anything to rival our cousins from across the Atlantic but, and this is a big but, then came ‘Up the Bracket’. Named after the slang term for taking a line of cocaine ‘The Libertines’ came as breath of intoxicating air in comparison to the number of clean cut bands that dominated the music scene.

‘Up the Bracket’ was and still is everything that a perfect debut needs. From opener ‘Vertigo’ to ‘I Get Along’ it rumbles along at a blistering pace but when you’ve finished listening you aren’t left wondering where that half an hour went. Of course what makes the album is Carl Barât and Pete Doherty’s song writing partnership. One part scuzz-rocker other part reincarnated William Blake, the catchy hooks and romantic lyrics combine to brilliant effect. This combination is used to best effect on ‘Time for Heroes’ where Doherty spits at us his tale of the ‘the stylish kids’ in the Mayday riots over Barât’s fuzzing rhythm guitar.

Although every song on this album brings something to the party perhaps the two songs that give an accurate representation of the whole album are ‘Tell the King’ and ‘I Get Along’. In ‘Tell the King’ The Libertines showed they could produce moments of genuine beauty to go along with their carefree rebel rock in ‘I Get Along.’ The line that epitomises ‘Up the Bracket’ comes from that final track ‘I get along, people tell me I’m wrong (guitars scream wildly) fuck em’. The Libertines don’t care if you hate their album. That may have something to do with the fact you’d be hard pressed to find anyone that does though.



+ Review by Robert L

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