Review Summary: The finest punk band of the 21st century's first album ages well and thrills as much as ever.
Everyone has an album like this, an album which opened their eyes, an album that made them realise there is more to music than what you hear on the radio, an album that made you feel because of music for the first time, an album that never seems to be too far away from the play button on your ipod. This LP will always be special to me, had it not been for Up The Bracket I wouldn't have gotten into so many other great bands, not necessarily bands this album has obviously been influenced by such as The Clash and The Sex Pistols, but also the likes of Radiohead, The Stone Roses and The Ramones. Bands that teenagers are in total ignorance of today, if it wasn't for Up The Bracket my earphones would most likely be infected with the likes of Akon and Scooter.
Well now all the sentimentality is out of the way it's time for the music, I'm sure most music fans know the history and the details of The Libertines and Doherty so I won't bore you with that, the bottom line is guitar music was not in a good state at the start of the decade. Bands such as Coldplay, Travis and Starsailor who were about as Rock'n Roll as David Attenborough dominated the airwaves but after the rise of The Strokes in the US, it was the Libertines turn in the UK. Alcohol and drug fuelled gigs that took place in flats, dingy clubs and everywhere inbetween brought a new lease of life to the London music scene. The Libertines represented a new generation and their "don't give a f***" attitude endeared many young fans, including NME.
Despite the cult following they received a relatively small amount of media attention but their debut, Up The Bracket, despite charting poorly, began to turn heads. The album opens up with Vertigo, a belting opener that has a thick bassline accompanied by the unified singing of the two frontmen, Carl Barat and Pete Doherty. The two share the mic throughout the album and the differing, yet similar vocal styles compliment each other well despite being far from the best singers in the world. Death On The Stairs is a prime example of this with each singing a chorus and a verse each flowing nicely into each other and this track just happens to be an absolute beauty with a superbly frantic melody accompanied by wonderfuly poetic lyrics.
Horrorshow is exactly what the title suggests, however this just happens to be one of the most exhilaratingly frantic songs known to man! Depicting the consequences of heroin abuse with enthralling panache, "I'll show you a picture, a picture of tomorow, it's all change and it's all sorrow". Horrorshow brilliantly keeps up the lightning pace set at the start of the album. Time For Heroes is a little slower but quite probably the best song on the album and one of the finest guitarsongs of the 21st century, a cult classic by now it is Doherty at his absolute best covering everything from the Mayday riots in London to the loss of national identity and the chav culture, "there are fewer more distresing sites than that of an English man in a baseball cap". It's a stunning two and a half minute poem dressed as a song. Almost equally good is Boys In The Band, a tribute to the groupies and hangers on, "you love the roll of the limousine wheel." It's a bit like two songs morphed into one with pacey verses followed by an insanely catchy, bouncy chorus. One of the dud songs of the album is Radio America, while it's not bad, compared with the sky high standards of the first five songs it's a let down.
Not to worry, normal service is resumed with Up The Bracket, the title tarck and lead single in which Doherty narrates a story about how he was hounded and followed around the streets of London by "two shadow men". It's in simialr vein to the opening tracks with crashing guitars accompanied by Doherty's fine lyricism. Tell The King steps down the pace and relies more on hard hitting lines such as "you've come up the hard way and they'll remind you everyday, you're nothing" than the fast paced melodies of before. The lead pairs vocal skills are at their most present here delivering lines with anger and tenderness when necessary. The Boy Looked At Johnny is a bit of a mess, a joke, filler song apparentlly aimed at Johnny Borell. While it is far from a masterpiece it does have a very catchy, silly chorus. The slightly slower pace continues with Begging, which is quite Stone Roses-esque. The Good Old Days contains some of the finest lyrics on the whole album, the prophetic "if you've lost your faith in love and music then the end won't be long" and is the most Clash influenced song.
Barat takes the lead for I Get Along, which sounds like a raging bull in a china shop, however this bull just so happens to be dancing the most elegant ballet and reciting the most beautiful of poetry while doing it to come up with a crashing, bashing, rocket fuelled adrenaline rush that is strangely addictive despite the craziness. What A Waster ends the album, (on some versions) and is more of the same continuing on from I Get Along however this time Doherty is on vocals.
In conclusion, Up The Bracket is one of the finest albums of the 21st century, with frantic melodies, beautifuly poetic lyrics and all the drunken bliss that comes with the Libertines it equates to one of the most shoddily made, cheap sounding masterpieces your ever likely to hear.
