Dirty Pretty Things
Waterloo To Anywhere
Interscope
After Carl Barat tired of Pete Doherty burgling his flat during his out-of-control drugs binges and British great white hope The Libertines spectacularly imploded, Dirty Pretty Things is the band Barat formed with fellow Libertine Gary Powell.
Waterloo to Anywhere is the band’s debut and retains the spirit and energy of everything The Libertines committed to vinyl, allowing Barat to release some pent-up frustration and focus on the music as his erstwhile former bandmate continues to dominate the tabloids thanks to his relationship with Kate Moss.
Indeed, the first six songs explode out of the blocks with such chutzpah, it’s impossible not to share in the cathartic sense of freedom Barat and the rest of the band had in mind when writing this material. “Deadwood” is fast and furious, but with an infectious melody to match the spiky riff and pointed lyrics, which address Doherty quite obviously. The chaotic “Doctors and Dealers” continues the assault with some breathless vocals as Barat turns his venom on the various ne’er-do-wells who contributed to Doherty’s problems, while the anthemic “Bang Bang You’re Dead” completes the opening trio in impressive style.
Even though there isn’t anything subsequent to match the high points of these songs, the pace hardly relents as the rip-roaring “You Fucking Love It” and a succession of similarly intense and scuzzy musical cousins pass by almost instantaneously.
Waterloo to Anywhere is a glorious statement of intent: while Doherty seems content to persevere with the hopelessly overrated Babyshambles as he maintains his media profile, Barat and Dirty Pretty Things are clearly focused on the music and the music alone.
Dirty Pretty Things: http://www.dirtyprettythingsband.com
