THE first Libertines album in 11 years finds them as boisterous as ever, but this is a different beast from previous outings.
Opener Barbarians feels instantly darker, sounding brooding as the band reach middle-age. That’s until we’re treated to what The Libertines do best - a rousing, almost-laddish, sing-a-long chorus, which could’ve been lifted from a music-hall ditty.
Change is also evident in the slow, rolling Gunga Din, borrowing heavily from frontman Pete Doherty’s ska influences, while the band trade in their guitars for a twinkling piano on the heartfelt ballad You’re My Waterloo, a roll-call for all that’s great about England.
If these are unfamiliar waters musically, Heart Of The Matter brings us right back to 2004, while lyrically Doherty and Carl Barât are writing with the same pen they put down all those years ago. It’s still biographical, they’re still pining for a rosier, blitz-spirited England and the nods to war – "tin soldiers" in Fame And Fortune and the album’s title itself – remain. And they’re apt, for this is a band of brothers back together again, ready for battle.
Review by Adam Steel
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