The Libertines - Time For Heroes (The Best Of) (Rough Trade US)
1/5
By: Alex Lee Thomson
For anybody that bothered to notice, The Libertines were perhaps the most influential and important band of our generation, assuming you're under thirty-something anyway. Cut all the Pete hype, the break-up embargo, they were a band that came from the depths of nowhere at a time when the American invasion was all we had to talk about and made a scene in the UK. They epitomised England and all things quintessentially British while incorporating modern American sounds if only to remind the yanks that we may not have invented rock 'n' roll but have come to symbolize its best bits. We all swamped the small clubs of London and beyond, back alley boozers, for sweaty intimate rock gigs with English boys playing their hearts out to their kind of punk. The noughties were defined by The Libertines and we can thank them for the onslaught of the post-Lib scene... which you can take as you please.
From the back room of Filthy McNasty's to the Hackney Empire, they were all we could talk about and yet they only received the gaze of mainstream society when it all started to fall apart. When Peter's drug use had shadowed their music and performances and Carl was forced to eject said troubled artist - who of course burgled flats, dated supermodels and let's face it, just bloody loved crack - it was then the tabloid press had circled above the band and the over-ground world learned of the wayward way of the Libertine. By then of course they had all but ceased operation. The second album was recorded, just about, and Peter was now involved with Babyshambles and staring down the wrong end of oblivion...
The Libertines were born in the underground, but died in the glare of the light when they came up from it. Ask people to talk about Peter Doherty and they'll mention Kate or drugs but most will fail to speak of 'Don't Look Back Into The Sun', 'Music When The Lights Go Out' or 'What A Waster' and this has always allowed the name of The Libertines to remain a great underground secret, no matter how much media attention Carlos and Peter received.
That is of course until now when some bright spark has decided to resurrect the band's good name and drag it though the mud with a (gag) 'Best Of'. The idea that you can pick and chose some of the bands songs over others to define a band that have themselves defined an era is a funny thought - especially when it's pretty much inarguable that their debut, 'Up The Bracket', is just in another league to their self titled follow up. 'Time For Heroes - The Best of The Libertines' is aimed at people who know Babyshambles or Dirty Pretty Things and want to explore their back catalogues, but if you haven't heard of The Libertines by now, really, maybe you shouldn't. They were about a time and place in all of our lives and to attempt to package their music into a compilation as though they're some singles orientated pop/boy band is so disrespectful to the band, their fans and their music that it should be outcast from the record store stands. You can understand why bands such as Joy Division and The Clash have reissued material as it's allowing a whole new generation to find their sound, but The Libertines are too new, the wounds too recent, for this to ever work.
Really, the releasers of this record should be ashamed of themselves. Completely, utterly and unquestionably humiliated. We can sleep sound though knowing that whomever gave the go-ahead on this has no regard for rock 'n' roll and thus isn't worth your contempt. The last thing that The Libertines need, the final insult, is a plastic-minded collection like this (designed to draw an American audience in). The lack of stars at the end of this review is deliberate. The actual music here deserves a full marks. The amount of respect shown, nothing.
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