Up The Bracket

Back in the ’90s, at some point between riot grrrl and Britpop, some bright spark of a journalist came up with a new scene. Based on a handful of bands peddling a derivative of post-punk guitar pop, it was dubbed the New Wave of New Wave and basically, well, it was shite.

Listening to the debut from Londoners The Libertines, it’s clear that while they’re looking to evoke the glory days of ’77 they are in danger of taking us back to the muddy days of ’92. At first glance they appear to have it all. A reputation for fired up, anarchic gigs proceeds them and they certainly can talk the talk. Add the fact that Up The Bracket has been produced by Mick Jones and surely they can’t fail, can they? No they don’t, but this is hardly a triumphant success.

The problem is that while they were working on that perfect combination of image and sound, the songwriting got a bit forgotten. For a while, they get away with it – the white riot of ‘Vertigo’, ‘Death On The Stairs’, ‘Horror Show’ and ‘Time For Heroes’ are quite exhilarating. After a while, however, the effect begins to lose its appeal. What was at first beautiful chaos starts to become shambolic (‘Radio America’ sounds like four people playing four different songs at once) and all that is left is a lot of aimless, directionless energy.

If they could hit the target more often they’d be fairly unstoppable but Up The Bracket is a largely unessential affair.