Friday, October 08, 2004
The Libertines
The Libertines
The Libertines, “What A Waster” entered the UK top 40; a catchy ditty. That was in 2002 when they came along with The Strokes, The Hives and The Vines, as rock make a comeback. But since when did it go away?
Anyhows, this London-based band, consisting of Carl Barat (guitar/vocals), Pete Doherty (guitar/vocals), John Hassall (bass), and Gary Powell (drums) released their debut album, Up the Bracket in March 2003. And since then, they have been having problems with one of its members, Doherty, who has been arrested for stealing things from Barat; addicted to heroin and crack cocaine. Numerous gigs that were being line out were cancelled after he didn’t turn up. The Libertines had no choice but recruited guitarist and vocalist, Anthony Rossomando for upcoming gigs.
In a nutshell, The Libertines are the true rock and roll bad boys. Or at least, Doherty is living up to the image. Unfortunately, I’m not sure who writes the songs. A band effort? Though I do know it was produced by Mick Jones. The Clash Mick Jones, which explains why sounds kind of late era Clash? The Libertines play a brand of retro punk pop ska if you insist on labelling. A close contemporary comparison would be Franz Ferdinand.
Far from bring an expletives band or rock and roll poseur, The Libertines sound very strangely self-aware. In Can’t Stand Me Now, “Can’t take me anywhere/ I’ll take you anywhere you wanna go/ You can’t stand me now...” or The Man Who Would Be King, “I lived my dreams today/ I lived it yesterday/ And I’ll be living yours tomorrow/ Anything else to say?”
At times, they sound the quintessential juvenile rockers preaching to lonely and straying. “Poor kids dressing like they’re rich/ Rich kids dressing like they’re poor/ White kids talking like they are black..” – Campaign of Hate. A statement of reverse racism. “If you get tired of hanging around/ pick up a guitar and spin a web of sound/ then you could be strung out all day/ with your lovers and clowns” – The Ha Ha Wall. Choosing the guitar over endless moping.
Is Last Post on the Bugle, a song about Doherty? – “So, so alone/ locked in a room/ waiting till kingdom come/ although I felt elated/ I felt like I was scum”. Not too difficult to fathom.
The song of the album though, in my humble opinion, is Narcissist. “We’re living in a looking glass/ as the beauty of life goes by/ you’re going to be so oh/ You’re going to grow so old/ Your skin is so cold.” Rock and Roll is narcissism with a capital N. As if we never figure that out? Of course we did. Only The Libertines can make it starkingly obvious without throwing us off. Besides, we need to hear it once in a while by a band that....
Medulla
Bjork
Maybe you can label this as Bjork’s most acappella album in which she collaborates with the choirs – the icelandic choir and london choir. It is one of those albums that has a feel of “gospel” quality, in which she takes centre stage with her singing and yodelling. Well, basically, its an album of sounds made by humanely possible voices that has been stretched, twisted and in any possible fledging direction. In Oceania, the squeaky dolphins sample provided by Robert Wyatt is an avant garde slow wash of seasickness. With barely much guitar sounds, lots of programming, some beatbox, piano playing here and there and lots of chorus backing, this will be considered weird for any artiste. Not for Bjork though.
We love her precisely for the same reason she doesn’t fit into any conventional mould of a pop or new age singer. She is a weird songstress who is neither as avant garde as meredith monk nor sell out divas such as Celine Dion. She is not quite Madonna for her music has never been housey dance.
Only one song is political in content and even then, it is a diatribe against the Osama information overload and how she thinks there are many other things worth talking about. In Bjork.com website, she says of Mouth’s cradle, “It seems like the whole world has been talking about it for the last three years, not only me. All unbelievable people are suddenly interested in politics.” Not going to score her much credit for a spokesperon of radical politics.
The best songs in Medulla are those with kooky sound effects. In Where is the line, “My purse wide open/ you ask again/ I see the crime and/ cash into accounts everywhere”, she describes it as heavy metal meets chorus. Go figure. “Who is it” contains what she calls “fruit machines” in its chorus.
The closing track, The Triumph of the Heart, is befittingly techno-ridden. It reaffirms a desire for life, “Smooth soft, red velvety lungs/ are pushing a network of oxygen joyfully/ through a nosethrough a mouth/ but all enjoys/ all enjoys”. Kind of making a detour from the previous 13 tracks.
The Libertines
The Libertines, “What A Waster” entered the UK top 40; a catchy ditty. That was in 2002 when they came along with The Strokes, The Hives and The Vines, as rock make a comeback. But since when did it go away?
Anyhows, this London-based band, consisting of Carl Barat (guitar/vocals), Pete Doherty (guitar/vocals), John Hassall (bass), and Gary Powell (drums) released their debut album, Up the Bracket in March 2003. And since then, they have been having problems with one of its members, Doherty, who has been arrested for stealing things from Barat; addicted to heroin and crack cocaine. Numerous gigs that were being line out were cancelled after he didn’t turn up. The Libertines had no choice but recruited guitarist and vocalist, Anthony Rossomando for upcoming gigs.
In a nutshell, The Libertines are the true rock and roll bad boys. Or at least, Doherty is living up to the image. Unfortunately, I’m not sure who writes the songs. A band effort? Though I do know it was produced by Mick Jones. The Clash Mick Jones, which explains why sounds kind of late era Clash? The Libertines play a brand of retro punk pop ska if you insist on labelling. A close contemporary comparison would be Franz Ferdinand.
Far from bring an expletives band or rock and roll poseur, The Libertines sound very strangely self-aware. In Can’t Stand Me Now, “Can’t take me anywhere/ I’ll take you anywhere you wanna go/ You can’t stand me now...” or The Man Who Would Be King, “I lived my dreams today/ I lived it yesterday/ And I’ll be living yours tomorrow/ Anything else to say?”
At times, they sound the quintessential juvenile rockers preaching to lonely and straying. “Poor kids dressing like they’re rich/ Rich kids dressing like they’re poor/ White kids talking like they are black..” – Campaign of Hate. A statement of reverse racism. “If you get tired of hanging around/ pick up a guitar and spin a web of sound/ then you could be strung out all day/ with your lovers and clowns” – The Ha Ha Wall. Choosing the guitar over endless moping.
Is Last Post on the Bugle, a song about Doherty? – “So, so alone/ locked in a room/ waiting till kingdom come/ although I felt elated/ I felt like I was scum”. Not too difficult to fathom.
The song of the album though, in my humble opinion, is Narcissist. “We’re living in a looking glass/ as the beauty of life goes by/ you’re going to be so oh/ You’re going to grow so old/ Your skin is so cold.” Rock and Roll is narcissism with a capital N. As if we never figure that out? Of course we did. Only The Libertines can make it starkingly obvious without throwing us off. Besides, we need to hear it once in a while by a band that....
Medulla
Bjork
Maybe you can label this as Bjork’s most acappella album in which she collaborates with the choirs – the icelandic choir and london choir. It is one of those albums that has a feel of “gospel” quality, in which she takes centre stage with her singing and yodelling. Well, basically, its an album of sounds made by humanely possible voices that has been stretched, twisted and in any possible fledging direction. In Oceania, the squeaky dolphins sample provided by Robert Wyatt is an avant garde slow wash of seasickness. With barely much guitar sounds, lots of programming, some beatbox, piano playing here and there and lots of chorus backing, this will be considered weird for any artiste. Not for Bjork though.
We love her precisely for the same reason she doesn’t fit into any conventional mould of a pop or new age singer. She is a weird songstress who is neither as avant garde as meredith monk nor sell out divas such as Celine Dion. She is not quite Madonna for her music has never been housey dance.
Only one song is political in content and even then, it is a diatribe against the Osama information overload and how she thinks there are many other things worth talking about. In Bjork.com website, she says of Mouth’s cradle, “It seems like the whole world has been talking about it for the last three years, not only me. All unbelievable people are suddenly interested in politics.” Not going to score her much credit for a spokesperon of radical politics.
The best songs in Medulla are those with kooky sound effects. In Where is the line, “My purse wide open/ you ask again/ I see the crime and/ cash into accounts everywhere”, she describes it as heavy metal meets chorus. Go figure. “Who is it” contains what she calls “fruit machines” in its chorus.
The closing track, The Triumph of the Heart, is befittingly techno-ridden. It reaffirms a desire for life, “Smooth soft, red velvety lungs/ are pushing a network of oxygen joyfully/ through a nosethrough a mouth/ but all enjoys/ all enjoys”. Kind of making a detour from the previous 13 tracks.
