The Libertines – All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade

Flashback to 20 years ago and The Libertines were arguably the coming thing in British music.

Killer, punky garage rock, peppered with leaders Pete Doherty and Carl Barât’s high and lowbrow allusions to British culture and a hinterland that veered between the romantic and the dangerous, captured young imaginations and meant they were on the brink of something big.

Or they would have been if the band weren’t already falling apart. Doherty’s status as a roguish troubadour played off his own dependency on hard drugs and troubles with the law. But the effect on his relationship with the band, documented on their biggest hit, Can’t Stand Me Now, meant that by the time a self-titled second album topped the charts they were already essentially defunct.

Doherty, Barât, drummer Gary Powell and bassist John Hassall’s 2015 comeback record was well-received but as music moved on, in truth, it looked like their time not looking back into the sun had passed. It’s a pleasure, then, to say their latest effort, All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade, possesses the old razzle-dazzle in spades.

Opener Run Run Run is vintage Libertines – a raucous hymn to those out-of-control nights that never seem to end. Albeit now with a tinge of self-awareness that it all comes at a cost.

Mustang combines twangy Americana with whimsical musings, while Have a Friend complements traditional Doherty howls of strangled anguish with a contemplative chorus and a typically frantic guitar solo.

Oh Shit is another latter-day Libertines classic – but around that are songs that hint at a certain sadness. Merry Old England, in particular, is a reminder of their mythologising of “Albion” but with nods to the fact that Britain hasn’t quite become the land of Byronic heroism they once sold to fans.

That seems to be a theme to the album in general: with Doherty and Barât revisiting the formula that drew in so many, but switching their romanticism of an imagined England to their own lost years and dreams.

It’s most apparent on the album’s last three tracks. Shiver, piano-laden and funereal, is possibly the most interesting song on it. Be Young adds a regretful chorus to reggae-tinged garage rock, while the old Doherty tune Songs They Never Play on the Radio brings back memories of their eulogy to their first iteration, What Became of the Likely Lads?

For any Libertines fan, there’s a certain sadness to listening to All Quiet On the Eastern Esplanade, a sense of what might have been. But that’s drowned out by catchy rock reminiscent of their pomp and happiness they are still here making a record worthy of sometimes misspent talents.

Mark Worgan
Image: Ed Cooke

All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade is released on 5^th April 2024. For further information or to order the album visit The Libertines’s website here.

Watch the video for the single Run Run Run here: