Customer Reviews

Up the Bracket

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Like everyone else, I've heard all the comparisions, all the hype, and definitely all of the vaulted expectations for this band long before "Up The Bracket" had a release date.

I'm here to put your worries to rest folks. This indeed, is a great record. Oh yes, they sound like The Jam one minute, Madness the next and sometimes even The Clash too, but don't let that make you put this album back on the shelf. There is enough depth, talent and fun to rise far above the imitations.

"Up The Bracket" is filled with your classic Brit-punk single fare. Time For Heroes, What A Waster and Boys In The Band, all fit this bill to a "t." Every song is well written with great, sing-a-long pop melodies and a touch of punk angst and matching tempo thrown in for good measure. I also love tunes like Vertigo and Death On The Stairs for their Smiths-like musings. Somehow, the band bring all these influences and attitudes together throughout the entire record with some help from great production, or lack there-of. It's this production (coming from Mick Jones of The Clash) that has enough attitude and raw energy to fill a Sex Pistol yacht party. Making "Up The Bracket" the latest great link in the Brit-Rock chain.

I had heard a bit about this band before I heard it playing in the CD store and impulse-bought it. Any given review of "Up The Bracket" compared it to the same set of bands: The Clash, The Jam, The Kinks, and The Strokes. As much as I loved the Strokes' debut album, The Libertines are doing it better...The melodies are more complex, the hooks are catchier, the production is rawer. This album will insinuate itself into heavy rotation on your stereo if you give it a chance. The faster, punkier songs will grab your attention at first, but it's the slower tracks that really stick.
Apparently there are two singers (though i can't tell who's who), and they are both big fans of degenerate debauchery. It sounds like they have to play this way or die, and its this urgency that's kept the best tracks on my iPod, and in my head, for the past week.

Rock 'n' Roll Mythology. The Band as Mates. Albion. The Last Gang In Town. And so on...
Certain bands invite this. The belief that they are more important than just the music. We are talking lifestyle decisions, I suppose. Whilst The Clash obviously spring to mind in this respect (and courtesy of Mick Jones' production and the very nature of these songs I suppose they have to be the obvious reference point here in many regards...) it is equally as obvious that so do The Libertines.
This is rowdy, this is frantic rock 'n' roll and this is -crucially- about walking it like you talk it. "But I've never seen those flowers in the barrel of your gun" sneers Carl Barat poetically at one stage. Crucially.
There is nothing approaching a bad song, no filler, nothing less than rousing. Whether we're talking about Pete Doherty's perfect anthem of 'A Time For Heroes' where riots, "truncheons and shields", suspected infidelities and scenes of wasted youth meet and meld seamlessly or the song 'Up The Bracket' itself, almost tripping itself up in its running-ahead-of-itself frenzy what we are actually talking about is classic song after classic song.
The distinctions between pop, rock and punk are now so blurred that I didn't listen to this album initially and think 'oh, it's punk'. I thought 'oh my god, what SONGS!'. Things have moved on and there is nothing of the shock of the 'new' here - just quality songwriting. Which is more than enough.
'Vertigo' feels just right, just like it should as a dizzying opener and then 'Death On The Stairs' retains the air of bravado and so on...Each song a rush of adrenaline itself.
I sincerely believe that this is one of the best 20 albums ever released and am confident that it will last.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the band whose personal problems are well-documented. Sadly.
So...
The Libertines may well die. In the class they were born. But that's a class of their own. My love.

The Libertines debut record Up The Bracket was heralded as a revival of British musical greatness in the rock 'n' roll scene. This acclaim isn't without its foundations either since Up The Bracket is one of the most impressive releases to come out of the UK since Supergrass' I Should Coco. Although it is only slightly less impressive than the afore mentioned Supergrass album, it is still a no holds barred punk album that catches the listener upon the first listen with its intense hooks. A lot of the material here can be considered British Punk but The Libertines manage to go beyond just a label and weave one of the most beautifully played ballads in recent memory with "Radio America." It's an astonshingly sloppy take at a ballad but the rawness of it is where the appeal lies. The same sloppy energy becomes the charm of the entire album and its nice to hear something that's not so processed (at least not so noticably) in the studio. With such memorable street tales as "Boys In The Band," "Up The Bracket," and "I Get Along," the debut from The Libertines will be held as a new standard for innovations in the punk rock genre.

Alright - before I write this review, I want to dispense with any pretenses and just say this straight up. Although there have been better albums released in the last few years (such as landmark releases by The Strokes, The White Stripes, Eels, At the Drive-In and Sonic Youth), listening to The Libertines' Up the Bracket is the most fun I've had with an album in quite some time. From the raging punk energy of the first note to the...erm, raging punk energy of the last chord, it is absolutely brilliant.
"Wait a second," I hear you say. "Back up. Who the hell are The Libertines?" Well you can be excused for never having heard of them. They hail from the slums of London and don't even have a record out in the US yet. But to miss out on the explosion of incredible music that is their debut album would be a mistake because it is the most energizing thing to happen to music this year. It's rumored to be released in the US this year, and if it is, despite the fact that it is still the early months of the year, it has a strong chance of being the best album of 2003. It's that good.
Led by singing guitarists Pete Doherty (looks like a somewhat pudgier Julian Casablancas) and Carl Barat (suave, surely a discerning indie girl's pin-up of choice), The Libertines ooze attitude. Doherty and Barat's voices are almost indistinguishable, and the album's harmonies often appear to be falling apart at the seems, but it's this reckless energy that makes the album so truly brilliant.

There's no way to sum up the power of this album in summary form, as it skirts the edges of different genres, and seems more like a collection of singles than a truly coherent album. A track by track evalutation seems the only way to convey the majesty of Up the Bracket.
"Vertigo" is the Pixies on speed, all charged rockabilly-punk riffs, brilliant harmonies and nonsensical lyrics. "Death on the Stairs" recalls the rocky vibe of the Strokes' "Last Nite," but is far more ragged. Meanwhile "Horrorshow" is the fastest song of the album, filled with pointed heroin metaphors. It recalls The Clash at their biggest moments of breakneck bravado.
But the fourth track is where they really pull out all the stops "Time for Heroes" is a bittersweet gem and houses the strongest tune of the album. The brilliance of The Libertines is all summed up in this song, particularly their lyrical gift. Any band that is able to counter a line of witty vitriol like "There are fewer more distressing sights than that of an English man in a baseball cap" with an oddly moving one like "We will die in the class we were born - that's a class of our own my love," clearly has a very special gift. The song also contains a ripping guitar solo that will shut up all the nay sayers who accuse them of not being able to play.
"The Boys in the Band," although containing the most shallow lyrics of the album, is an infectious stomp which recalls prime A Hard Day's Night era Beatles mixed with a dose of funk-rock. Finally, the last track of side one is "Radio America." Played completely acoustically, it's the most ramshackle song of the album and at times feels like it's falling apart, particularly considering that Doherty sounds far too drunk to sing coherently. Nonetheless, there is a very strong melody underneath the surface.
Side two begins with a pained Doherty screech, before the band slam into one of the album's strongest tracks "Up the Bracket." It's a battle of the bands with the Kinks and the Jam, and the winner is - The Libertines. When it doesn't feel like they could possibly be any more exciting, they do something very intelligent - they kick their heels up with the relaxed, rather pretty "Tell the King."
The most ridiculously energizing song on the album pops up next, proving that "Tell the King" is an anomaly - "The Boy Looked at Johnny," which may or not be named after a line in Patti Smith's "Land" at one point has Doherty and Barat singing a verse completely made of nonsense syllables, as if their rage was so great they couldn't express it with words. "Begging" follows, a carefree slab of psychedelic punk reminiscent of what Guided by Voices can do when they really put their minds to it.
The sense of exhaustion at this point is palpable, and the album begins to draw to a close. "The Good Old Days" is a light, breezy slightly jazzy tune, but surprisingly Up the Bracket pulls out the stops on last track "I Get Along." Beginning with an incredibly sharp riff and plummeting head first into a whip-smart fast riff, Barat spits out increasingly bizarre lyrics before bringing his voice into a smooth croon for the chorus. The track also contains what is surely the best swearing in rock this year when he sings "I get along, just singing my song, people tell me I'm wrong..." Then the music cuts out and we hear him mutter "F--k `em." One more chorus and the song falls apart, signaling the end of the record.
Often ramshackle, sometimes unlistenably so, Up the Bracket remains the most electrifying album of 2003 (and 2002 for that matter). The exclusion of wonderful first single "What a Waster" is odd (it may have something to do with the band's very public falling out with original producer Bernard Butler), but the album truly doesn't need it.
Congratulations Libertines, you fame hungry chancers, you. You've pulled it off.

When I first heard the Libertines, it was in 2000 with their first single "What a Waster". Like "Highly Evolved", it blew my mind. It wasn't the lyrics, it wasn't the look, it was the music and, THE SOUND! It was obvious then, and even more apparent in this album, that these boys from the South of London understood their roots, absorbed their influences, then, reinterpreted all of it to suit the moment.

I will say it now, Pete Doherty, if he doesn't kill himself first, will eventually be recognized as one of THE greatest songwriters of his generation. The Kid completely gets IT. He has taken the energy of the Ramones, combined it with the poetry of the Smiths, and filtered it all through the swagger and drunken bliss of Oasis.

If you have been wondering what all of the hype is about or, you are just looking for something that will give you hope that Rock n Roll ain't dead...then this is YOUR album.

As an old, jaded punk rocker who grew up with bands like the Clash, the Jam, and the UK Subs, my hopes weren't too high when my good buddy put on the debut album by The Libertines. After a few songs, I began to shake off the fuzz of too many years of poseurs striving for greatness through the sheer weight of ego, and really began to listen. By the time "I Get Along" played, I couldn't keep my head still. These boys are the real thing from top to bottom. Sure, they could be less sloppy, and I suppose they might be too British for some people. But there is simply no denying their originality, energy, and incredible song writing talent. If you miss the good old days of real Brit mod and punk, give the Libertines a listen. You'll be hooked.

The Libertines are a truly awesome band who's debut recording is cool and addictive from the first listen. They are raucous yet sweet, totally melodic yet ramshackle - and decidedly British (for instance, the perfect use of the word "divvy"). And THEY DO NOT SOUND LIKE FREAKIN' THE STROKES OR THE WHITE STRIPES OR ANY OF THESE NEW "POST-POST-PUNK"/"GARAGE ROCK" BANDS! Please! Snobby "music lovers" who use a rubric involving popularity, how many records sold etc. to decide wether a band is "cool" or not may turn their noses up at a British band that gained enough buzz (note the use of "buzz, not "hype") to sell over in the U.S., but they defy the whole point of music: ya listen to it because it SOUNDS good. And the Libertines sound good. Really.

That's all I wanted to say

This band had the potential to go on and fly the flag for British music, but it was thrown all away by singer Pete Doherty's narcotic habits.
How unfortunate it is then that the masterpiece that is "Up the Bracket" will never be matched. This album really has it all, from the first bars of "Vertigo" all the way through to the last few of "What a Waster", we are on a musical journey through two troubled, drug fuelled minds. The album's highest point, in my opinion, is the magnificent "Good Old Day's", Doherty's tirade at sentamentalists. In it he refers to England as "the Albion", in the same way the poet William Blake did. This is not all the two have in common, as "Up the Bracket" contains some very reflective writing from Doherty, giving the first signs of his self-awareness that would later fade away, being replaced with drug addled self pity. What a shame that such a great songwriting partnership was disbanded so early. What a Waster.