Album: Up the Bracket by The Libertines (2002)
Genre: Indie | Style: Rock/Pop | Mood: Boisterous
Record Label: Virgin
Format: Album

Description: Up the Bracket is the debut album by British indie rock band The Libertines, released in October 2002. It reached #35 in the UK Albums Chart.
The album was re-released on 8 September 2003 with an additional track, "What a Waster" and DVD featuring the promotional videos for the singles: "Up the Bracket", "Time for Heroes" and "I Get Along". The album was the start of a revival for the British rock scene. In April 2008, BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe chose the album as one of his Masterpieces, playing the album in full with interviews from the band members, fans and fellow musicians who were influenced by the album. The album received widespread praise from critics and has quickly become considered one of the greatest albums of the 2000s.

Artist Background: The Libertines were an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the songwriting partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall (bass) and Gary Powell (drums) for most of its recording career. The band was part of the garage rock revival and spearheaded the movement in the UK. The band gained some notoriety in the early 2000s. Although their mainstream success was initially limi... Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Related Artists: Babyshambles, Dirty Pretty Things, Peter Doherty, The Courteeners

Music Scene: Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Tags: Indie, Rock/Pop, Boisterous, 2000s, Album, Virgin

Additional Context: Based on 2 votes. Available on Discogs marketplace


Up the Bracket is the debut album by British indie rock band The Libertines, released in October 2002. It reached #35 in the UK Albums Chart.
The album was re-released on 8 September 2003 with an additional track, "What a Waster" and DVD featuring the promotional videos for the singles: "Up the Bracket", "Time for Heroes" and "I Get Along". The album was the start of a revival for the British rock scene. In April 2008, BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe chose the album as one of his Masterpieces, playing the album in full with interviews from the band members, fans and fellow musicians who were influenced by the album. The album received widespread praise from critics and has quickly become considered one of the greatest albums of the 2000s.

Album: Anthems for Doomed Youth by The Libertines (2015)
Genre: Indie | Style: Rock/Pop | Mood: Boisterous
Record Label: Virgin
Format: Album

Description: "Anthems for Doomed Youth"  is the third studio album by English garage rock band The Libertines, released on 11 September 2015.The album contains two literary references, the tracks "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Gunga Din" referencing poems of the same titles by Wilfred Owen and Rudyard Kipling respectively. "Gunga Din" was released as the album's first single on 2 July 2015. The album's second single, "Glasgow Coma Scale Blues," was released on 20 August 2015.
A Deluxe Edition of the release features five bonus tracks,

Artist Background: The Libertines were an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the songwriting partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall (bass) and Gary Powell (drums) for most of its recording career. The band was part of the garage rock revival and spearheaded the movement in the UK. The band gained some notoriety in the early 2000s. Although their mainstream success was initially limi... Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Related Artists: Babyshambles, Dirty Pretty Things, Peter Doherty, The Courteeners

Music Scene: Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Tags: Indie, Rock/Pop, Boisterous, 2010s, Album, Virgin

Additional Context: Based on 2 votes. Available on Discogs marketplace


"Anthems for Doomed Youth"  is the third studio album by English garage rock band The Libertines, released on 11 September 2015.The album contains two literary references, the tracks "Anthem for Doomed Youth" and "Gunga Din" referencing poems of the same titles by Wilfred Owen and Rudyard Kipling respectively. "Gunga Din" was released as the album's first single on 2 July 2015. The album's second single, "Glasgow Coma Scale Blues," was released on 20 August 2015.
A Deluxe Edition of the release features five bonus tracks,

Album: The Libertines by The Libertines (2004)
Genre: Indie | Style: Rock/Pop | Mood: Boisterous
Record Label: Virgin
Format: Album

Description: The Libertines is the second album by the British indie rock band The Libertines. Released on 30 August 2004, it is particularly biographical of the relationship between frontmen Carl Barât and Pete Doherty. The album instantly reached number 1 in the UK. It sold 72,189 copies in its first week. The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2006, NME placed the album 47 in a list of the greatest British albums ever.
The Libertines, like its 2002 predecessor, Up the Bracket, was re-released with a bonus DVD on 22 November 2004. The DVD, entitled Boys in the Band, is a collection of live shows, band interviews, and the "Can't Stand Me Now" promotional video.
The song Arbeit Macht Frei featured in the 2006 film Children of Men.

Artist Background: The Libertines were an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the songwriting partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall (bass) and Gary Powell (drums) for most of its recording career. The band was part of the garage rock revival and spearheaded the movement in the UK. The band gained some notoriety in the early 2000s. Although their mainstream success was initially limi... Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Related Artists: Babyshambles, Dirty Pretty Things, Peter Doherty, The Courteeners

Music Scene: Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Tags: Indie, Rock/Pop, Boisterous, 2000s, Album, Virgin

Additional Context: Based on 2 votes. Available on Discogs marketplace


The Libertines is the second album by the British indie rock band The Libertines. Released on 30 August 2004, it is particularly biographical of the relationship between frontmen Carl Barât and Pete Doherty. The album instantly reached number 1 in the UK. It sold 72,189 copies in its first week. The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. In 2006, NME placed the album 47 in a list of the greatest British albums ever.
The Libertines, like its 2002 predecessor, Up the Bracket, was re-released with a bonus DVD on 22 November 2004. The DVD, entitled Boys in the Band, is a collection of live shows, band interviews, and the "Can't Stand Me Now" promotional video.
The song Arbeit Macht Frei featured in the 2006 film Children of Men.

Album: Time for Heroes: The Best of The Libertines by The Libertines (2007)
Genre: Indie | Style: Rock/Pop | Mood: Boisterous
Record Label: Virgin
Format: Compilation

Description: Time for Heroes – The Best of The Libertines is the greatest hits collection by English rock band The Libertines, released in October 2007 on Rough Trade Records. It is the first material to be released by the group, who split up following a deterioration in the relationship between Pete Doherty and the other members of the band, since the single "What Became of the Likely Lads" in October 2004. The album contains no previously unreleased material. However, "The Delaney" and "Don't Look Back into the Sun" do not appear on any of the band's albums whilst "Mayday" and "What a Waster" appear only on Up The Bracket in Australia and America.

Artist Background: The Libertines were an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the songwriting partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall (bass) and Gary Powell (drums) for most of its recording career. The band was part of the garage rock revival and spearheaded the movement in the UK. The band gained some notoriety in the early 2000s. Although their mainstream success was initially limi... Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Related Artists: Babyshambles, Dirty Pretty Things, Peter Doherty, The Courteeners

Music Scene: Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Tags: Indie, Rock/Pop, Boisterous, 2000s, Compilation, Virgin


Time for Heroes – The Best of The Libertines is the greatest hits collection by English rock band The Libertines, released in October 2007 on Rough Trade Records. It is the first material to be released by the group, who split up following a deterioration in the relationship between Pete Doherty and the other members of the band, since the single "What Became of the Likely Lads" in October 2004. The album contains no previously unreleased material. However, "The Delaney" and "Don't Look Back into the Sun" do not appear on any of the band's albums whilst "Mayday" and "What a Waster" appear only on Up The Bracket in Australia and America.

Album: All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade by The Libertines (2024)
Genre: art rock | Style: chamber pop
Record Label: Casablanca
Format: Digital Media

Description: high-resolution | non-explicit version

Artist Background: The Libertines were an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the songwriting partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall (bass) and Gary Powell (drums) for most of its recording career. The band was part of the garage rock revival and spearheaded the movement in the UK. The band gained some notoriety in the early 2000s. Although their mainstream success was initially limi... Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Related Artists: Babyshambles, Dirty Pretty Things, Peter Doherty, The Courteeners

Music Scene: Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Tags: art rock, chamber pop, 2020s, Digital Media, Casablanca


Album: All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade by The Libertines (2024)
Format: Album

Artist Background: The Libertines were an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the songwriting partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall (bass) and Gary Powell (drums) for most of its recording career. The band was part of the garage rock revival and spearheaded the movement in the UK. The band gained some notoriety in the early 2000s. Although their mainstream success was initially limi... Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Related Artists: Babyshambles, Dirty Pretty Things, Peter Doherty, The Courteeners

Music Scene: Part of the London, England music scene. Emerged in the 1990s era. Associated with Indie movement. Known for Rock/Pop style.

Tags: 2020s, Album


In the early 2000s, few would have bet on The Libertines making it to a fourth album album at all, let alone one as robust as All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade. Intra-band strife, prison and Pete Doherty’s well-documented drug problems seemed to have scuppered the mercurial talent shown on 2002 debut Up the Bracket and 2004’s self-titled follow-up for good. However, following 2015’s galvanising reformation album, Anthems for Doomed Youth, All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade finds the good ship Albion coming ashore with one of the strongest sets of songs of the band’s career. On an album recorded at The Albion Rooms, the group’s studio-cum-hotel in Margate, Kent, the ramshackle charm which sometimes felt like their songs could collapse at any moment has been bolstered by something far more muscular and sturdy. Rollicking opening track “Run Run Run” lands like The Clash at their anthemic peak, while closer “Songs They Never Play on the Radio” transforms a tune Doherty has been tinkering with in various forms for years into a swooning, Beatles-esque ballad.

Where Libertines songs of old sprung from a mythical vision of England conjured from Doherty and fellow singer/guitarist/songwriter Carl Barât’s imagination, here they’re more rooted in the here and now. “Mustangs” is populated by a litany of colourful characters observed around Margate, Barât singing about day-drinking mums, day-dreaming nuns and 24/7 ne’er-do-wells over a glorious Stones-y groove. While “Merry Old England” looks at a land of discarded crisp packets and B&B vouchers from the perspective of migrants travelling to the UK looking for work. “It’s a rich tapestry,” Doherty tells Apple Music. “It’s not just about Margate, it’s about England. I don’t think the English realise how the rest of the world gazes upon us with curiosity and wonder and bafflement, really.” Read on for Doherty and Barât’s track-by-track guide.

“Run Run Run”
PD: “It’s a bit of a belter that one, I love it. It’s got a bit of a Squeeze thing going on.”
CB: “The song doesn’t have to be about running away from your past. It’s about running because that’s what you do. It can be in terror, or it can be a thing of great elation or purpose.”
PD: “It’s just how you get your kicks, baby.”
CB: “Yeah. It can be processing a trauma or getting your kicks. Either way.”

“Mustangs”
PD: “We spent an endless amount of time trying to get this together which isn’t normally our style. At one point it had 10 verses.”
CB: “It was like a Velvet Underground epic. It was my [T.S. Eliot poem] ‘The Waste Land’. It took a lot of shuffling in the sand to get that one to settle. It’s got a summer air to it, that kind of looseness. It’s got a Lou Reed-y narrative to it about all these characters in Margate.”

“I Have a Friend”
CB: “That’s a topical song given it’s about war and what’s going on in Ukraine.”
PD: “It’s hard to look away from that. A few of us in the band have got Russian and Ukrainian roots. It was too much for me to take, we had to sit down and talk about it which merged into ‘I Have a Friend’. It was just a desperate cry from all the darkness and confusion of all of this. I kept saying, ‘NATO are going to step in any day, are we too old to enlist?’. I said to my wife, ‘We can’t just sit here and watch it, we’ve got to go!’ She said, ’We’ve got a two-week-old baby.’”

“Merry Old England”
PD: “The people who travel here and risk life and limb to come to England and try and make a life for themselves is something we spend quite a lot of time talking about. A lot of these people are trained doctors, they speak four or five languages. It’s not that I’m pro-illegal immigration, I’ve just got this thing against borders. It’s very easy to create fear and anger and hostility about people.”
CB: “It’s about discussing something that’s topical. There’s no didactic approach from us. Maybe we do have opinions, but it’s just a good song.”

“Man With the Melody”
CB: “That’s as old as time, that song.”
PD: “From back when we were in Kentish Town. We didn’t have a B&B or our own recording studio or a bar. All we had was John [Hassall, bassist]’s basement with our little amps. He’d sit there in his skintight Dairy Queen T-shirt and his cowboy boots strumming this mad little song. We were secretly jealous of it because it was so melodic. So we took it apart, stripped it down and put it back together, put our own bits in and gave it a lick of paint. It’s got this creeping, gothic, Bram Stoker-ish element to it.”
CB: “That’s Gary [Powell, drummer]’s singing debut. I think it’s the first time we’ve all sung on a song and shared it like that.”

“Oh Shit”
CB: “It’s essentially about the proprietor of The Albion Rooms and her husband. It’s about these young people jacking in their lives and just doing something different and worlds apart. It’s that sort of romance of the road, having no regard for their own immediate safety or life past what’s just straight in front of their faces, and being in love and all the experiences that come with that.”

“Night of the Hunter”
PD: “There’s a lot of references to tattoos. I’ve always been fascinated by that thing of ‘love’ and ‘hate’ tattooed on the knuckles. When we play it live it really slows down and I like this idea of all these people singing along to ‘ACAB’ which stands for ‘All coppers are bastards’, which is an old skinhead tattoo. Prison is mostly full of young men, but you always get that old lag in there and they’ve got these weird tattoos and you make the mistake of asking, ‘Oh, what do those dots mean?’ Then you’re like, ‘Oh, fuck…’ You hear some really dark stuff.”

“Baron’s Claw”
PD: “That was mostly born in The Albion Rooms. We were all sleeping there and trying to put the album together. I had these chords and I was playing them and Carl’s room is directly above where I was sitting. It was six or seven in the morning and I was playing it louder and louder, just hoping that it would somehow penetrate his dreams. So I opened the window and then I was playing it on the stairs. He finally came down a bit grumpy, as he tends to be in the morning, and I thought, ‘I’ll wait for him to say something…’ And he didn’t. I waited and waited and then finally I got a little ‘So, was that a new tune, then?’ [from him]. Because I don’t think he believed it was.”
CB: “You’re lucky. In the old days, if you were playing outside my window I would have told you to shut the fuck up.”
PD: “The song’s about this quite shameful episode in our history when we [Britain] funded the White Russians against the Bolsheviks. This guy is over there with a unit of White Russians fighting the Red Army and then comes back without a hand. Is it based on a true story? Why not? It could have happened!”

“Shiver”
PD: “If you did a DNA test on that song it would be 23 per cent me, 25 per cent American bully, a bit of sausage dog, a bit of Scottish terrier, a dash of dachshund…It went on a lot of weird deviations that song.”
CB: “We were in Jamaica and we wrote a really misty-eyed ballad about 25 years of friendship and going from rack and ruin and dreams and reasons for staying alive. We cut it down and used the middle eight for ‘Shiver’ and the other song got thrown on the scrapheap. That’s how decadent art can be.”
PD: “It turns out with ‘Shiver’ that we’ve actually made a half-decent pop song. That song’s had more radio play in its first month than [debut single] ‘What a Waster’ has had in 25 years.”

“Be Young”
PD: “The message of this song was to be young and fall in love, because we were coming out with all this depressing data about the planet’s impending doom. We wrote it in Jamaica as this hurricane was crashing through the Caribbean. We just thought, ‘Well, we’ve got all this stuff in here about being born astride a grave and the world boiling in oil, so let’s throw in a chorus about just being young and in love.’”
CB: “It’s difficult to write a song like that. Jim Morrison could say, ‘I just want to get my kicks before the whole shithouse goes up in flames.’ But he died in 1971, do you know what I mean? Now, you can’t have that mentality. You can’t say, ‘Just be young and fall in love.’”
PD: “A lot of people do though, a lot of them just don’t give a fuck.”
CB: “And more fool them.”

“Songs They Never Play on the Radio”
PD: “We got that song together years ago, at the very beginning. It’s got a chequered past. It’s like an old mate who you really believed in and you’ll always have a place for him in your heart, but he just sort of seemed to fade away. But then, it turns out he’s written the jingle for the new Audi advert and he’s sitting in a fucking mansion.”
CB: “The bastard.”
PD: “I took it under my wing and made it all jangly and jazzy. I could never quite do it with Babyshambles and I could never quite do it on my own, so I brought it to the table for this one. And then John said, ‘Why don’t you try it like this?’. He turned it into this Beatles thing, and it completely turned it on its head. I was aghast. We wrote another verse, gave it a lick of paint and here it is.”

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