Dirty Pretty Things

Waterloo To Anywhere (Interscope)
by Ewan Wadharmi

Too volatile a substance to exist in our atmosphere, The Libertines were destined to implode. With the drug-addled, burglary-prone Pete Doherty element removed, clever guitarist turned frontman Carl Barat and drummer Gary Powell have formed a thrilling, yet far more stable compound. Temporary Libertines replacement vocalist Anthony Rossomando takes a less glamorous but more permanent position as second guitarist. Waterloo… staples the crisp arrangements of The Jam to Velvet Underground breakdowns and Madness britska. While the singles “Deadwood” and “Bang Bang You’re Dead” easily shame Doherty’s Babyshambles, the overlooked “Gin & Milk” is clearly the strongest track. The nastiest bassline since the Restoration era leads ebb-and-flow jangling and dynamic drum fills. Barat’s spittle-inflected raging, “No one gives a fuck about the values I would die for/not the faceless civil servant or the rudimentary crack whore,” finally releases the buildup with such force that it lands a hair clog on the table of unsuspecting young Parisians, perhaps themselves libertines.
(www.interscope.com)