WITH the Libertines reforming, and playing at Leeds and Reading Festivals this summer, it seems a strange time for Carl Barat to be resurrecting his solo career.

Maybe Barat, McCartney to Pete Doherty’s Lennon, is trying to escape the long and unforgiving shadow of his talented but self-indulgent fellow Libertine. If so, he makes a good fist of it on Let It Reign, a high-octane album, where punk collides with heavy rock, driven along by his tight new band The Jackals. Storming opener Glory Days, aimed squarely at Doherty’s squandered genius, sets the coruscating tone, which is maintained by the doom-laden single A Storm Is Coming and the anthemic March Of The Idle.

The pace rarely drops, but when it does, as in the closing track, the thoughtful Let It Rain, the contrast is strangely refreshing. If Doherty has returned to song-writing form as well, then the Libertines album should be splendid.