The Libertines

It's not bad, it's the definition of "landfill indie" however, instantly forgettable but does make you feel good while listening so sneaks a 3

Was a fan of the libertines when I was a teenager, proably one of the best U.K. bands from the 00’s Indie scene until the Arctic Monkeys came along. So this is rating has a personal bias to it, a soild 4 star album in my eyes. As a side note I seen everyone is jumping on the Wikipedia sentence that in 2005 this was voted the 3rd most overrated album of all time. Thought it was worst sharing the results of that poll here of that poll for context: 1 Nirvana - Nevermind 2 Coldplay - X&Y 3 The Libertines - The Libertines 4 Oasis - Definitely Maybe 5 U2 - Joshua Tree 6 Radiohead - OK Computer 7 The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 8 The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds 9 Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks 10 The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead Apart from X&Y I’d say that list is full of great albums, overrated maybe, but still great none of the less.

Many people consider this to be Pete Doherty’s greatest achievement. I disagree. Doherty’s greatest achievement is successfully completing a Margate cafe’s Mega Breakfast challenge: if you can eat four rashers of bacon, four eggs, four sausages, hash browns, onion rings, bubble and squeak, beans, two slices of thick bread well as a quarter pounder burger and chips in under 20 minutes the breakfast is free.

"The Libertines was voted the third-most overrated album ever made in a 2005 BBC public poll."

You already know an album is going to be a 3/5 at best when you see that the Wikipedia article for it is like 8 sentences long. One of those sentences being: "The Libertines was voted the third-most overrated album ever made in a 2005 BBC public poll." This sounds a bit like The Cla-oh, it was produced by Mick Jones. That makes sense. Yeah, it's exactly what I expected. More British punk - the most important genre in musical history according to this book. Kind of goofy. Yup, it's a 3/5.

Yet another album that seems to have been curated here because the author had a hard time coming up with the promised thousand albums.

God awful. I just can't. Okay, the 'live' sounding production is kinda cool, but to me it just sounds like some pretty competent dads having a drunken jam in the garage.

Scrappy and lively, raffish and fun and very likably, if insistently, cheeky. But it does all seem a bit put-on. One gets that they were pipped to be like the Clash, but they simply ain’t all that, or didn’t work out to be. And the “Stones to Franz Ferdinand’s Beatles” is even more of a reach. Best cut: “Music When the Lights Go Out” and “What Katy Did.” Still, it’s well-made modern rock, with quality throughout, and a clear leader in the aughties division.

The hip sound of a pill-fueled bender. Hard for me to stomach in our current post-ironic hellscape.

Pete Doherty is an insult to my eardrums

Better than I expected, given the track record of British indie records from the early aughts on this list, but inessential nonetheless.

Saw it was an English indie band and thought I knew what I was getting into, but they avoid all the pitfalls of their contemporaries. Rough around the edges but dialed in when it needs to be. I really enjoy their classic, clean sound. Best track: Road to Ruin

Really likeable, catchy melodic punk - the gritty reality lyrical approach of the early Arctic Monkeys and the cockney tunesmith feel of Squeeze - but all on speed (unfortunately this isn't just a simile - it's the truth). I'm conflicted. The music is entertaining but Pete Doherty was such an arsehole, I struggle to separate the two

Great and charming album that deserved all the hype. Maybe more. It has all: rhythm, harmonies -and hormones-, mysticism. It is a fun listen. Yes, it may be the British response to The Strokes, and in some points, I consider it superior. Maybe it's the poetry and dandy vibes, the influence of The Smiths and William Blake. Happy to listen to this, over and over again.

A beautifully chaotic jangly heartfelt piece of work. Five stars for being a pretty clear Arctic Monkeys precursor that I wasn't previously aware of.

This album is a post punk/indie rock jam of an album. Definitely the best of the libertines. Ive been a libertines fan since high school and that goes for Pete Doherty's other projects like Babyshambles and this album introduced me and will be a forever punk rock love of mine. I personally rate these projects above their predecessors such as the Clash and The Modern Lovers or anything else similar. The song writing

Not bad. Entertaining lyrics and a fun, ramshackle style.

I was an avid and regular reader of the NME in the early 90s when I worked in a record store. Mind you, I was in Australia, so the NME was about 8 weeks old by the time the sea-freight copies made their way to me. It did allow a perspective of both time and distance on the UK's weekly music press and their tendency to hype new and "exciting" bands. Sometimes, nay often, they turned out to be crap. I hold the NME most culpable for this trend, of whom The Libertines are only the most dramatic example. I had lost interest and close following of new bands by the 2000s, but even I was aware of the Libertines' reputation and the tabloid frenzy around their lives. High drama indeed! But I cannot say that I have ever knowingly heard one of their songs until today. This from the NME's self-congratulatory review of this album: "NME put them on the cover before their first single had even been released (and The Libertines have returned the compliment, using one of our shots on the sleeve of ‘The Libertines). Excuse us for gloating but it’s important to note how many other people didn’t get it. ... The only problem was the danger the drama would overshadow the music, but, for a band like The Libertines, the two are bound together inextricably." They had clearly lost perspective; this music is tossed-off rubbish, completely overwhelmed by the drama, that the NME themselves had hyped up from the very beginning. ! And, man, this is a pretty crap record. It's underwritten, poorly played and sung, and largely uninspired. Mick Jones' production makes their hazy sloppiness sound vaguely intentional, but this is just really bad. Clearly, the Libertines' artistic medium was their celebrity, not their music. This was the way culture was going, but eventually celebs could become famous simply for being famous without the pretense of some other medium (in this case, music) as a vehicle for their expression. I think the world would be a better place if Pete Doherty and Carl Barât had eschewed releasing records and just stuck to tabloid fame; that would be easier for me to ignore. What a turgid and morally bankrupt industry, selling us shit and telling us it is caviar. You can fuck right off

Tosh. Pete Doherty killed a man and got away with it to make mediocre jangle pop like this.

They were insufferable 20 years ago and they’re insufferable now Can’t Stand Me Now is decent but that might be generous

I don't like any reference, casual, ironic, aside, statement about the Holocaust in fucking pop music, period. And this whole thing, these miserable entitled people, this dreadful music. The fact they have this ridiculous level of recognition and publicity, represents everything I loathe about the nasty bourgeois tendencies of pop music. The twats that wrote about this band saw themselves in the louche miscreants swanning around with their miserable drug habits. Makes me feel ill.

Oh man, I really did not enjoy this.

The fuck is this

I just cannot bear this flimpsy pop rock

Hepatites The Album. Yuck.

This album completely baffled me. I quite the garage rock revival bands of the 00's like The Strokes, The White Stripes, etc., but this album is just so utterly bad I couldn't even fathom. The vocals are all over the place in the worst way, with the backing vocals clashing with the lead vocals as if these songs were recorded in just one take with very shitty equipment. The instrumental are not too bad, but they're so painfully generic. And I couldn't remember I single note of what I had just heard, only that I didn't like it. The kind of garage rock that should never have left the garage.

I am not a big fan of the Garage Rock Revival scene of the late 90's and 2000's. I find bands like the Strokes, The White Stripes or Arctic Monkeys to be extremely boring and average. It merely feels like a bland shadow of what once was the loudest and most Punk music before Punk was even a thing. And trying to replicate something like The Sonics is not really a good idea especially when the sound already is more sonically accepted. Additionally, The Libertines haven't really had a big influence or big importance other than one of their songs being in a movie. I think the album is terrible... Just straight up terrible! How has anybody given them the platform that they had? The albums first track, 'Can't Stand Me Now' is one of the albums "better tracks". While the vocals are already pretty bad, the songwriting is only alright as is the sound and chorus of the song. It's a bad song, it feels like if Morriseys had a twin who couldn't sing was to approach Indie Rock. Vocally, absolute trash. The rest is slightly better. Overall, not good nearly bad. 'Last Post on the Bugle' comes with a more Punk inspired sound and somehow the vocals sound even worse. And if that wasn't enough, the delivery is genuinely terrible. Nothing about this in terms of vocals is pleasent at any point. It's just terrible. And the music behind all that is definitely not enough to help the track out of the missery. Next song 'Don't Be Shy' is the same thing again just that the even the instruments sound bad now. The vocals are at points slightly better but at others just even worse, however that was possible. It is genuinely off-putting and terrible. It gives me physical pain and discomfort to listen to this garbage. 'The Man Who Would Be King' sounds like terrible Britpop which is interesting because Britpop is often times bad to begin with. The vocals are bad, as established, the lyrics try to be poetic? I guess? Because they are just terrible. And finally the instrument switch between basic and annoying. The entire project would've been better if everyone just started playing at random in Free Jazz style because that concoction would at least sound more interesting. Another terrible track. 'Music When the Lights Go Out' changes the style to a more Indie Rock style and it does make it slightly better at some points. It's still really bad but it is much less terrible than other tracks so far. A slight The Who and general Mod influence is really present on 'Narcissist' which is only slightly more entertaining because of it. It's bad but less bad. 'The Ha Ha Wall' is another terrible song. Bad delivery, terrible vocals, bad songwriting, terrible instrumentation. It's just unpleasant. I am German and I am very aware of the history and seeing the title 'Arbeit macht frei' is not something I want. For those who don't know, this was written above the entrence of Auschwitz. It is a sentence that should only be a part of history and not art and definitely not art in this way. I don't even care about the music, the title is enough for me to skip the song because I do not want to hear it. I might be ignorant but I don't care. This is not an album where I want to hear this used. 'Campaign of Hate' fittingly plays next and continues the annoying and bad vocals, the annoying and bad songwriting, oh my god I am just repeating myself. Terrible! More Indie again on 'What Katie Did' which starts more promising but it gets as terrible quickly with the god awful "Shoop shoop, shoop de-lang-a-lang" vocals. It's corny, annoying and performed worse than a theatre made by 5 year olds. Before I repeat myself again, 'Tomblands', 'The Saga', 'Road to Ruin', 'Road to Ruin' and 'What Became of the Likely Lads' are all just terrible in every single thing that they or try. I cannot write more because listening to this is worse than the Salt and Goat torture where your feet are covered in salt and goats lick it off until they reach your bones. This album with nothing else around you is worse. favourites: none least favourites: the entire atrocity of an "album" Rating: strong 0 to light 1 https://rateyourmusic.com/~Emil_ph for more ratings, reviews and takes

Could have died without listening to this shit

Fitting title for a day when liberty feels in short supply.

There was so much press surrounding Pete Doherty and his rocky relationship with the rest of the band before this, opening this with "Can't Stand Me Now" was a stroke of genius of its own right. Arguably one of the coolest opening tracks when taken into context of the dialogue at the time. Anyway, just when punk was getting all stuck up on tween-ready bubblegum and tough-guy posturing in the States, the Libertines came through and showed just how much life was still in the old style. Sure, it doesn't sound like The Ramones or Sex Pistols or Black Flag, but neither did "London Calling." (The Clash's Mick Jones produced this, in case you forgot.) So unless you're stuck on skate- or pop-punk formula as the only available flavor for the genre, just embrace that this is a direction that punk went in the early '00s. It's crazy all the contortions listeners and punk-averse critics were about that realization. This isn't indie rock, and was never shooting to be it. I get that it spawned a lot of godawful shamble-rock (remember The Fratellis?), but this is a pretty singular take on British punk - and really punk worldwide - that still stands up a couple decades after it hit shelves.

The libertines are to me the last true rock and roll band spillover from the 20th century - they’re dangerously falling apart musically and I guess truly at points in their short explosive burst of their original career - of which they barely survived but gave us two records of perfection - with a duo songwriting combo of Doherty and Barat - which echo the Lennon and McCartney phenomenon of being greater than the sun of their parts. This album is meticulously produced and performed - yet the struggles are evident even in the singing performances - the drums are comically overplayed but somehow just for the right amount and the guitars weave in and out dangerously with punk gusto. Doherty barks and mumbles away musically throughout while Barat keeps it grounded and Mick Jones captures it gleefully as it probably reminds him of the shambles the Clash were in their later years. An artful record - maybe maybe not totally perfect as their debut but only by a hair.

I loved everything about this one. It's got just about everything I love about punk without actually being punk. The energy, the aesthetics, the devil-may-care attitude, even the little musical tropes of punk... it's all there. It feels like the spiritual successor or the evolution of The Clash. The songwriting is smart and self-aware, the musicianship is so good, the production is fantastic... There's a lot of garbage that seems to have made it onto the list just because it's British. This ain't that. THIS is legitimately great. What a fun surprise.

A really decent album from the garage-rock revival era. I knew of The Libertines but only really knew of their most well-known tracks, but I enjoyed this a lot - they were a lot more varied than I expected. Their favourite track of mine isn't here, it was only ever a single (No points for guessing which...) but I thought this was great! Favourite: Can't Stand Me Now

Rating: 10/10

Bepaalde nummers van dit album kende ik al wel, maar ik heb het geheel denk ik nog nooit gehoord. Ik heb Up The Bracket (2002) en Babyshambles - Shotter's Nation (2007) ooit als LP gekocht, dus als ik toe was aan dit soort muziek zette ik 1 van die 2 albums aan. The Libertines is een vreemde band. Eigenlijk klinkt het regelmatig vrij kut omdat Pete Doherty voor geen meter kan zingen, of hij laat het in ieder geval niet al te vaak merken. Andere albums in deze lijst heb ik daar wel eens op afgeschoten, maar dit vind ik dan weer steengoed. Het klinkt bijna als een hoge kwaliteit live-album, met een band die zin heeft om muziek te maken ondanks de vechtscheiding die vrij snel hierna volgde. De gitaren en ook de drums, met name de snaredrum, klinken perfect. Hoogtepunten o.a. The Man Who Would Be King, Arbeit Macht Frei, Campaign of Hate, Road to Ruin.

Another band I was not overly familar with but Can't Stand Me Now does ring some bells. I liked this album more than the Preachers album and found it to be a lot of fun. Faves: Can't Stand Me Now, Music When The Lights Go Out, What Became of the Likely Lads

fair enough i guess. undoubted proof that the first 1001 book was published in 2005. some nme bogroll. charmin, but still bogroll. i could've gotten away with listening to (at least) 5 better bands from the coveted uk classes of 2000-2004. most indie rags were at peak annoying/lowk racial. in the same way the strokes made overly bounced on velvet songs most of these are overly dick sucked beatles flow. i want to live in the world where baggy/shoegaze won over the gallaghers. nothing wrong with the gallaghers (apart from the obvious) it just portends a conservatism for "the greater good" that's overtaken just. everything. anyways i'm colonized (how could u tell?); i appreciate the shout at "white kids talking black," singles are decent, go listen to dfa1979 if you wanna hear a two piece that might Actually kill each other 2.5-3.4

Mediocre production of a mediocre album of a mediocre band.

Another new to me band and album. This is a banger. I listened to their 1st album also and I'm surprised it isn't on the list. Loads of energy. Good listen.

Divertido, dinámico, cada canción tiene un algo diferente, pero a la vez todo el álbum se siente unificado, se siente muy fresco. Me gusta mucho la forma de interpretar del cantante, ese como toque ligero de despreocupación al cantar, la voz quebrada, los altibajos....No creo haber escuchado otro cantante así que yo recuerde. Tiene un encanto este álbum. Buena escucha, me alegra haberlo topado en este momento. Sin duda varias canciones se irán a mis favs.

I think the often repeated quote of them being the third most overrated band according to a 2005 BBC poll really does neglect to include a lot of context. The popular press at the time were obsessed with Pete Doherty and his drug problems, to the point that everyone in the country knew him but not necessarily the music. Within the scene itself, The Libertines were influential in a way that few bands are. The music itself is raw, honest, romantic, and full of poetry. It was a time when the pop charts were full of dross like Toploader and other bands destined to end up on a Jamie Oliver "Music to Cook By" CD. They shone brightly in comparison and the music still stands up. I'd say "Up the Bracket" is the better album, but I think this one has more popular appeal.

Excellent. Don’t realise it at the time in the shadow of the first album

9/10 amazing stuff throughout fantastic album

Wonderful. That kind of young feeling I like this kind of punk

it's about 50% the strength of up the bracket and it was a let down from all the bootleg versions of most of these songs but it's still steeped in nostalgia and there's some cracking songs on there, even if the recordings of them feel a bit sanitised.

Obviously nowhere near as good as Up the Bracket, but I can't knock it.

Not bad, but not amazing either. Feels like if the Strokes and Vampire Weekend had a kid, but it didn't live up to either parents potential.

Middle of the road alt rock album. No track really stood out but not a bad album either.

Too much like the Clash which I like more.

Yet another "its fine" record that somehow has elevated status in the UK for reasons I dont understand.

Gave it two listens. Can hear a lot of Ramones, Clash, Smiths, and Cure influences. It’s ok, but it wasn’t for me. 3/5

Love this album

britslop. i liked what became of the likely lads

The fuck…. In 2004? 1.5

the first song was pretty good but the rest was decidedly Weak Sauce and featured a stunning lack of conviction from the singer. 2.5

I did not like this album, I did not like this singer. Couple decent bridges, but I’m getting more annoyed to have to listen to what I believe to be average albums including in this list. A third best Sloan album is so much better.

2/5

it just kinda is

Given the hype around these lads at the time and the fact that Pete Doherty would tell anyone who would listen that he was the reincarnation on earth of the poet Shelley while high on smack, you'd think his output would've aged better. This album was meh. Can't Stand Me Now is alright, I suppose, but I was actually quite bored for long stretches. 2.7/5.

Shit Arm, Bad Tattoo

One review said landfill indie and I certainly cannot describe this any better than that.

indie is one of those genres that sounds good for about 6 months when you're 19 and then never again. this just took me back to my own phase and all the teenage feelings of being absolutely miserable because why wouldn't you be when all you listen to is fucking indie

It got better the further in I went but I just couldn’t stand the vocals

It’s not them, it’s me. I have a long history of disliking 2000's indie rock and this didn’t do much to change my mind. I can hear why people like it, it’s got that sloppy, chaotic charm to it, but most of it just kind of ran together for me. I don’t even think it’s bad, just not my thing at all. It feels like one of those albums where if you already love this style, there’s probably a lot to latch onto. For me, though, it was more “yeah, I get it” than something I actually wanted to come back to.

I never understood the popularity of the Libertines and this foes not change my mind. Could have been a 1 star review but ever now and then a rig or song will make the album acceptable

I didn't like this back when all of my LiveJournal friends liked it and I still don't particularly like it now

What an idiotic album cover but at least music sounds almost exactly like you would imagine. Another boring indie record, yay. 2 stars

Enstaka intressanta riff, i övrigt rörigt och inget som fångar tag i mig.

Inte alls spännade

Didn't get it back then, don't get it now. Pete Doherty must be the luckiest guy on earth.

Seldom has the gap been bigger, between the excitement around a band's hype machine and the quality of their actual recorded output. With hindsight, let's be honest, this is a hot mess that feels quite like a bunch of unfinished demos. Little snippets of songwriting talent but terrible, sloppy playing. The ramblings of an addict, being egged-on by his enabler mate. What the hell were we all thinking? 🙃

When listening to this, I just picture a bunch of youths egging a house and running away thinking they’re the height of cool

Ahh the era where bands were named something like “the vaguely retro sounding noun” or “the (word that tells you I read a book in 10th grade lit)”. Not bad but certainly not good.

2.4 I always thought Pete Doherty is bit of wanker. Maybe his charisma comes through at a live show, it doesn't really come out here.

Somehow managed to get through this album, even though it was pretty bad. Another one of those choices on the list that I could not figure out why it had a place on it. Just felt like another Brit bias pick.

Not sure the world needs another rock n roll party animal album. Sounds good but not really standing out just being reminded of Pete Doherty's tragic inability to get off heroin despite all the resources stardom has provided him really bums me out and makes me fear that I will never get my own shit together. So this is a lot more depressing for me to hear than I think its creators intended.

I was post indie when they peaked in the early 2000's - so did not catch them first time around. I was team Whitehouse and always thought Pete Doherty was a bell end which repelled me from them for a few years. In latter years I enjoyed Can't Stand me Now as a bit of a guilty pleasure. Rest of the album is pretty piss poor by comparison and feels especially ropey when I have spent most of the day listening to Elvis Costello/ REM.

It felt like this album was full of random filler and unfinished ideas. I didn’t really like it at all.

'I no longer hear the music' good Singing is annoying Kinda annoying Just annoying really didn't like it

It's not bad, it's the definition of "landfill indie" however, instantly forgettable

I couldn't stop thinking about how much they're like a shittier version of the Kooks

after a day, don't remember this any more at all.

Another in the pile of 1001 mediocre British turds Robert Dimery heard

Second most overrated band of all time

Appalling

Couldn't do it. The singing was horrendous. 1 star.

I couldn't finish this. These guys can't sing for shit, but the music was okay enough for a sports pub or something.

Just bad

:/

Great album… for me to poop on.

I’m surprised to see no reference here to the greatest review this album received. (I may be misreading - the reviews only go back to March 2023 in my browser). Nigel Blackwell of Half Man Half Biscuit was so appalled by this record that he wrote the scathing “Shit Arm Bad Tattoo”. It is deliciously scathing, but the second verse always fills me with joy. ‘If you're going to quote from the Book of Revelation Don't keep calling it the Book of Revelations There's no "s", it's the Book of Revelation As revealed to St John the Divine See also Mary Hopkin She must despair.’ To me this album sounds like the tape was left running during a beery rehearsal. How it became one of the 1001 albums I must hear before expiring, I don’t understand. And I’ll be especially miffed if Achtung Bono isn’t on the list.

Tajuttoman hyvä rocklevy! Ei vain rymistelyä vaan myös dynaamisen soiton juhlaa. Ennen muuta aivan loistava rumpali. Huippuhetki levyn keskivaiheilla biisipari Arbeit macht frei ja Campaign of hate. The Libertines oli tuttu nimi ja musatyyliään olen kyllä kuullut mutta käytännössä minulle täysin uusi albumi. Jälkeen loistava löytö! 5/6

adolescencia pura

Amazed and disappointed by all the negative reviews. What others have labeled as "barely being able to play" and "bad production" I would consider "raw and engaging." There's an urgency, energy and deep personal connection to the poetry of the album, none of which would be present if it was overproduced and overpolished. But if it sounds like a chaotic mess with two people barely holding together as they struggle with the disillusionment of addiction and fallen dreams, that means it worked. The production here is Mick Jones asking them to play a song a few times, then picking a take. It's a band in a room playing music together. So yes, it sounds quite different to say - the top US charting single of 2004, "Yeah," which credits zero instruments but seven writers and somehow required three studios to record two people saying "yeah" a few dozen times. That's manufactured pop. Not to say its not a banger in its own right, but in contrast this is real people playing real instruments and singing real songs about things real to them. Apologies if it doesn't sound fake enough.

Criminally underrated, the precursor band to an entire movement

Straight up classic. Imperfect, messy, gritty, sincere and incredibly joyful. Yes, they can be pompous and are not immune to the odd catastrophe, but they get up again, dust themselves and play on. Respect.

Love them ❤️

Have I been living under a rock? How have I never heard of these people. I saved half the album on the first listen. 2/3 of it by the second listen. Loved it.

The boat times

I’ve seen the libertines live brighton on the beach 2024, it was a great gig, Doherty and Barat weren’t arguing. Though there was some crack addled party mum bumping in our way, many, many times. But it was worth it, really it was. On this album itself, I prefer up the bracket for it’s consistency but wow this has the peaks! Can’t stand me now perfectly sums up the notoriously destructive relationship of Doherty and Barat. Music when the lights go out just has incredible dynamics. What Katie did should’ve been a single, it’s perfect pop and the ‘shoop de lang de lang’s’ is just so catchy. Then what became of the likely lads is also an absolute banger! Those 4 are really the absolute highlights but I’d definitely say that theres some tracks that go very under-appreciated… Last post of the bugle, one that I forget until I play it then I’m like oh I love that one! Don’t be shy because it’s just infectious. Narcissist, the ‘Dor-Ian gray just-for-the-day’ hook is just very infectious. Then Road to ruin too because I like the jungle book reference ‘trust in me’. Least favourite is the ha ha wall, it works well in the album context but it’s just eh It’s probably worse than this (like a 3,4) but I’m giving it a 5, a low 5 more like a 4.5 but this has peaks it really does!