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Suedehead - it's your fault I bumped the thread the other day, old boy. You posted about liking the Libertines in your random rumblings, and I wondered if they'd had a thread while I was off board for a while; they had, though I was a bit taken aback by who had started it, I must say....
Personally, I think this band has it in them to be something very special - if they don't destroy themselves first. At the risk of getting flamed in a forum which seems to have a large number of (early) Manics fans on it, they remind me of the Manics quite a lot; they are a band with a manifesto who seem to be inspiring massive devotion in their fans and massive polarisation in the general music-magazine consuming public at large.
I have to admit that, as with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, I was cautious of them at first; they seemed over-hyped and that can often be a bad sign. But I weas swung by two things; hearing I Get Along, with its perfectly-timed sweary bit; and reading a piece around the time Pete got banged up which had the lines from Time For Heroes - 'theres fewer more distressing sights than that/ Of an Englishman in a baseball cap' in it and something just clicked. Then I heard the song, which referenced the WOMBLES - as in White Overalls, not Uncle Bulgaria - and liked it even more.
Then I bought the album on a whim, and fuck me, they're a great pop band playing at being shambolic, rather than the other way around.
This is a deeply British album and I hear echoes of the Kinks, the Jam and the Clash in it; even some of the manifesto ethos of early-period Blur when they were doing Modern Life is Rubbish, and I reckon they're at least thinking about things and trying to reflect their culture; not bad at all.
And their songs have some great sweary bits in them; best use of swearing I've heard for some time, as a matter of fact.
That said, I don't want anyone to take the above as a hymn to how superb the Libertines are; I just happen to like them, that's all... |
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