THE LIBERTINES

All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade (EMI)

The Libertines’ earlier albums, though hugely impactful in 2000s indie, were arguably hindered by a lack of focus: good songs which required a greater degree of sobriety to shine. For All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade, though, producer Dimitri Tikovoï has created a much welcome sense of cohesion, gently preening the guitars to tasteful string arrangements which hint at middle-aged introspection.

Here, the band weigh up their “lifelong project of a life on the lash,” on Run Run Run, a cheerful, literal escape from grown-up tribulations, and Night Of The Hunter is telling in its bloodied convict’s Macbeth allegory: “You can clean your clothes / You’ll never clean your soul”. There’s plenty of full-throttle big-chorus indie to excite dancefloors, yet the album is at its greatest when Pete Doherty and Carl Barât’s trademark storytelling figures, with all their romanticised, cartoonish affinities for misbehaviour, are finally caught out by cold reality.

words BILLY EDWARDS