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The Libertines: Time For Heroes
by Dom Gourlay
It might be a new year but some things never change.
One of those is the good old NME's crystal ball, which having predicted global domination for their "new rock revolution" now has to wipe that rotten egg off it's pasty face as one of their supposed saviours of rock and roll has to release yet another single off it's debut album to keep the bailiffs away and hopefully prolong it's demise into £1.99-in-the-Woolies-bargain-bin territory.
It's at times like these when I wish Simon Cowell was on the IPC payroll. Imagine his reaction on hearing The Libertines - he'd dismiss them with a cry of "distinctly average" and pull up those 42" waist chinos around his neck to good effect.
Not that 'Time For Heroes' doesn't possess a tune. It does, even if it should be renamed "The Fine Art Of Plagiarism in 3 Minutes Flat", being as it steals it's best bits all too blatantly from the first two Jam albums, 'Stay Free' by The Clash and at least four different Buzzcocks' riffs.
Hopefully the press will get bored with this lot in the same way they have with other less successful "new messiahs" (anyone remember Campag Velocet and Fischerspooner? - thought not) and allow them to go away and concentrate on being a real band.
Marginally better than The Strokes then, but still not in the same league as These Animal Men or Liberty X.
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The Libertines - Time For Heroes
i like fischerspooner.
but yes. libertines = average, convenient, dollar-sign shite.
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The Libertines - Time For Heroes
I couldnt agree more that nme's "new rock revolution" isnt worth the poor-quality over-priced paper its printed in.
And, yes, I remember the over-hyped rubbish of Fischerspooner and Campag. Not only that i further remember Terris and Tiger.....that paper has a lot to answer for.....
Anyway.....the libertines record...
The reveiwers' use of the world of manufactured pop music as a frame of reference is a nice point: this is music that aspires to be populist, and (as the reviewer also mentions) is very derivative within a tradition of more poppy new wave bands....melodically i think i hear a big beatles influence on the libertines catalogue (but then again, what populist band cant you say that about?).
Also, its great to hear people who have actually written and arranged songs with the whole sound in mind....the record is excellently put together.
So, yes, it steals the best bits of old songs, yes, it's even better than the strokes, and, more than that, it has the best first four seconds of any record released since the millenium....
Through gritted teeth, while holding a copy of nme,
"Long live the Revolution"-
Re: The Libertines - Time For Heroes
you weedy, u.g.l.y., dumbass... you just don't get it, DO YOU?
Better than the Strokes?? HA! Like that's a challenge.
The Libertines are just a bunch of guys on herione taking the piss out of people like you who think that cus someone's daring enough to wear a leather coat, indoors, that's too small for them, they're somehow "revolutionary".
I don't want to know that it's "time for heroes" i want heroes. give mee mee heroes! give mee mee action and drama! give me 80's metallica! give me people saying something, a media that gets things right, constantly and a band to break through who aren't on one of the major three!!
GIVE ME YOUR SOUL, SOLDIER!
Love Love
Mee Mee
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Re: The Libertines - Time For Heroes
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The problem I have with the Libertines isn't wholly constituted by the way they sound.
It's got more to with the overall concept surrounding this band - "4 mates all-a-bonding in grotty council flat whilst listening to their heroes' tunes before getting seen playing in their local pub" bollocks, when in actual fact it should read ROUGH TRADE SIGN AMERICAN BOY BAND WITH GUITARS (THE STROKES - you might have heard of 'em - that band who only sold 5000 copies of their last record but were somehow deemed big enough to headline the Uk's biggest rock festival) AND FIND ENGLISH COUNTERPARTS COURTESY OF THE SINGER BLOKE GOING OUT WITH A JOURNALIST.
The NME and their "new rock revolution" as with their "no name" scene has been one big joke from the start, enhanced by their blanket coverage of The St*k*s et al while the kids have voted with their pocket money, buying the records of bands the NME ignored from the start (The Cooper Temple Clause, Hundred Reasons and the 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster to name but 3), only realising afterwards that these bands are more popular with their ever dwindling readership and therefore playing catch-up by awarding 'Who Needs Enemies?' and 'Psychosis Safari' singles of the week.
There is indeed, a time for heroes, and maybe the Libertines are victims of the cynicism duly awarded to bands the nme chooses to hype these days, but in the context of our three aforementioned "real" heroes, the Libertines aren't fit to lick their boots.-
Re: The Libertines - Time For Heroes
Dom
I fully endorse your condemnation of NME and their shameless construction of "scenes" to justify their own coverage of less-than-average bands. They have certainly been championing a lot of mediocre stuff of late (Fischerspooner, we already mentioned - add The White Stripes and The Datsuns, for example). Its not that i agree with the "new rock revolution" in general.......but two main bands (the Rough Trade pair) have, i think, something to offer. The Strokes, i admit, have been over-hyped, and The Libertines are in danger of going the same way, but thats not to say i dont think they deserve attention along side the likes of 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster (where NME clearly are playing catch-up).
Of course they can be accused of looking backwards. But now, more than ever, is a time when we need some bands with decent influences..."nu metal" had the kids attention for too long, and all these "nu punk" Green Day sound-a-likes need showing up. They may not match up to The Buzzcocks, The Jam or The Clash, but they do at least have tunes AND rock (sorry, i couldnt think of another appropriate term). As importantly, the lyrics at least mean something, even if no-one, the bands and NME included know what the "revolution" is supposed to be against (apart from Blink 182 and A, obviously).
The working class "Boys in the Band" routine fools no-one, but what could be more British (Albionian?) or more rock n roll than the old "working class hero" routine. They talk a good fight, and the music backs it up. They might not be the revolutionaries i'd hope for...but they recognise that it is a "time for heroes" and "the scene is obscene", and make great rock n roll at the same time: a big step in the right direction.
I think they have melodies that could take the charts, and a sound sexy enough to take guitar music back to the mainstream: theyre the closest thing we have to revolutionaries with an attractive enough "trojan horse" (to borrow a manics metaphor). This could mark a new spring for guitar-based music: all the excitement of early Oasis with the potential to be huge.
I would be the last to advocate populism for no reason but fame and fortune (unless its for me): but i do want "our" music to become as successful as Britpop again (or if it ever was that successful; insert chart-rigging allegations here). And the two bands in question, although not to Paul Weller or Joe Strummer levels of hero-potential or politcal awareness, wipe the floor with the likes of Tim Wheeler, Damon Albarn, Louise Wener....
Possibly with The Strokes, and probably with The Libertines, NME might (for once) have made a good call. And if the kids buy into it, it would be better for us all.
Oh yeah, and I like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club as well.........
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Re: The Libertines - Time For Heroes
Its not about the leather coats, or the boy band potential (see Dom's response)...it's about the music, the message, and the feelings...
I think they mean something, and have the potential to stand for something thats far more than just the music...a whole culture of dissent (descent too, perhaps?) that resufes to be elitist; and within music, against career musicianship, banal lyrics, and over-produced American pop songs.....
80s Metallica, you say?
You into Led Zep as well?
Motorhead?
You play guitar, don't you?
How about Steve Vai?
GET SOME SOUL, MATE!!!
love
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The Libertines - Time For Heroes
I really like this song, even if it is stolen. But one point has been puzzling me; could anyone shed any light on the line 'Wombles bleed truncheons and shileds' for me please? -
The Libertines - Time For Heroes
yeah cofussed me too.guess uncle bulgaria not too safe.what a mess itll have made on the common! -
The Libertines - Time For Heroes
I think wombles bleed truncheons and shields has something to do with riot police. -
The Libertines - Time For Heroes
The 'Wombles' were/are a group in London who were very strong thinking and who used to riot etc a lot about things. I knwo that's a bit vague, but yeah.
I am a huge Libertines fan, and even so long after this was released, I feel it deserves defending.
This song is one long poem. In the same way that The Jam, The Clash, the Buzzcocks (so often cited in relation) wrote songs that told stories, paited pictures, so do The Libs here. They show us Britain, they give us lines that really show us how they feel.
Surely any song with the line . . . :
'He knows there's fewer more distressing sights than that of an English man in a baseball cap - we'll die in the class we were born, yeah that's a class of our own my love.'
. . . deserves some respect?
Or is it just me that can see the genius lying in this now-past band?
Kissy kissy.
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