What had to be was a record that justified the torments.
"Shut your bastard yap!" someone hollers, "Get your ears on, fucker, listen to this!"
That sinister, creepin guitar line, those choppin chords, and there he is, Pete, the voice crawlin cross these needle-decked junk-sick sheets;
"I'll tell you a story but you won't listen,
It's about a nightmare steeped in tradition,
It's the story of a coked-up pansy
Spends his nights in flights of fancy"
"La Belle Et La Bete", lurchin up gainst the mesh a the speakers, peerin out with the stink-eye here to Venus, some kinda scraggy-arsed hoodlum grunting in the corners of a Dickensian night-terror.
"Risen Jandek! It's 'Conversation Diva'!"
It is, renamed an re-jigged an with added Love Interest, yes.
And astounding, oppressive, catches a fella by the lungs, DT's granted melody.
The shadows, the grinding, the threat of… something, something results in dead limbs hangin useless over 19th century hospital beds an up above the ghosts a lovers neglected screechin the lungs out their spectral faces.
"Is she more beautiful than me?"
Is that Kate Moss? It is Kate Moss, there she is, perfectly situated midst the grime, and yet thank fuck, I say, she appears for only a couple lines (no pun, bastard).
Last thing anyone needs is some kinda Double Fantasy mania careering cross the grooves, last thing we need is "In the middle of a bath I call your name…"
Different kinda love affair goin on here, yes, related by some fella wanders into some Camden dive or other, kinda place where the chat "turns evil" all too easily, wants to tell them bout a fella and his muse, and look at those scornful glares, look at them, beautiful girl she is, what's she doin wi that bastard, spent all her money on the whiskey-cracks, he did.
And that sinister arachnid bass-line tip-toein cross the soundways.
The murk, the grot, the eyes hangin to the shins, the red raw remnants a every blink clinging to the lashes.
The wind flingin all Job's tribulations gainst the stained glass windows a the boozer, the clouds racin cross the sky like the ethereal flashes took to the heavens at the end a Fantasia.
A half-glimpsed opium nightmare, a craggle-toothed lament, a…
"Fuck forever! If you don't mind!"
Hell's fire, Fuck Forever, that glorious flick-knife serenade, reapin euphoria from the rotten troughs a nihilism, ain't anyone done it so good since Johnny Rotten bent 90 degrees off the stage and spat "No future!" cross the lens.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Berlin
"Duke, were you that red raw fingered bastard?"
"No, but I used to like to beat the shit out of him: Why you so red-fingered? Why you so red-fingered?"
Sorry, I had to vamp to some '80s-era Cusack tom foolery for some reason (One Crazy Summer, B-Cat Goldthwait if you must know!).
Seriously Duke, another fine exploration of pop cultural phenomena right here.
And ah! The imagery:
The banks a the river, folks wi' the soil a lost civilizations trapped in the hair hangin over the faces, chewin locusts an drinkin the sweat a buffalo, all of them looking skyward...
It's almost too much for we mere mortals to take!
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Sir Berlin, thank you. It's difficult sometimes, gettin the balance tween what a thing sounds like and what it feels like in the back a the brain. t'is a battle must be engaged in everytime the finger batters key.
specially when there's so much emotional weight tied to the record in question.
And i've never seen that slab of Cusackary! i must!
3 - Bennett
Brilliant, always.
"Well just for that I'm gonna do another fuckin twenty minutes!"
Thanks Duke.
4 - DJRadiohead
Duke, so pleased to see this thing here. This is my IOU, BC-style. I intend to devour every word of this here thesis on Babyshambles. I look forward to it.
5 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Bennett, thank you. i think it needs a few snaps a those mountians of creation, though.
And DJ, i look forward to your thoughts, man. i know all about the Blogcritics IOU's. IOU a couple myself, i think.
6 - DJRadiohead
Well done, Duke. I feel like I understand your boy Pete better now than I did while at the same time still feeling like I don't get him at all. There seems to be elements of self-pity, resignation, rage, and revelry in his lyrics. It's like, "I don't know what to make of myself. Fuck you if you think you can." I do believe I am going to have to hear this.
On a related note, I saw where those twats The Darkness thought they were qualified to pile on Pete. They accused him of not having a decent song in him. These are the same cunts who gave us that 'I believe-in-a-thing-called-love' shrieking piece of dammit. Someone ought to slap them.
7 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
DJ, thank you! there are definately those elements of self pity an the like in there, and i think i said before his post-libertines stuff reminds me at times of Morrissey's post-Smiths stuff, in that far too much is concerned with "look what those fuckers went and did". There's a lot less of that on the album than i expected, to be honest. a lot of the stuff floating about on b-sides and demos is far more bitter. But there's a lot more goin on than just "poor me", there's a lot of beautiful, life-affirming stuff in there. Albion in particular just buggers the soul raw, a gorgeous piece a work.
I didn't hear The Darkness yackery, but i did hear him goin on about how British music is the laughin stock of the world or some such. How there are no interestin or exciting bands. I can't help listenin to Arctic Monkeys an Babyshambles an The Editors an Test Icicles an The Paddingtons an just thinkin how vibrant an excitin it all is, and how damn irrelevant The Darkness are, which is no big news, but it seems they've somehow missed this of late. It pains me too, since i really liked that first album. it was fun, an it was catchy as hell. but then, as ever, they start gettin full of themselves an illustratin just how, well, yeah, irrelevant they are.
8 - DJRadiohead
Yeah, Duke I get the sense from your lyric spot quotes there is a lot more than poor me. He seems at times to be righteously pissed, happily stoned, resigned that the whole things going down the shitter, and all those places in between. I want to hear this. I have to confess... some of the reggae/ska moments probably won't rock my ass. I worked with a ska freak once. Every fucking day it was Skankin Pickle records. Kind of burned me out. And some asshole sang a song about Bumblebee tuna. I might never get that song the fuck out my head. I am off on a tangent now, aren't I? Back to Pete and Babyshambles. I do want to hear this CD. "Fuck Forever" sounds like my kind a song.
The Darkness is the worst of British music. Well... I don't know. I bought the Bloc Party CD and I am not sure I am digging that. In fact, I might hate it. It doesn't make fuck all sense to me right now. The Darkness totally fucking annoyed me. I wish Noel and Liam would stop picking on Franz Ferdinand and go beat up Justin Hawkins. Liam needs to sssslllllllaaaap him. That would please me.
9 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Bloc Party i find kinda, well, dull. it's all wonderful i'm sure, but i never really got it, i suppose.
with regards the ska stuff, there are sections here an there that are fairly ska-based, but it still sounds like rock music, you understand, with the exception of Pentonville, which you may well detest. i know a lot of the reviews have flung cack in its face.
Another thing reviews have pointed out, an i avoided just for that reason, is how Fuck Forever is the anti-Live Forever. i think that makes a lotta sense. and you'll maybe get that better when you hear it, which you may do shortly, so the email in your inbox would suggest...
10 - DJRadiohead
Duke, here is a link to what those Darkness twats had to say.
"Fuck Forever" is a great song title (almost as good as "My So-Called Celibate Life" a song and title which gives me giddiness all the way down to my subfuck regions).
I have now had the opportunity to hear the song and I think there is but one flaw. I didn't have it turned up loud enough. One can't listen to that on moderate volume levels.
11 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
what a buncha useless fuckers they've proven themselves to be, these Darkness wankers. what annoys the balls off a me is that they echo a fair percentage of opinion regarding Pete, the whole "oh, doesn't have a song in his body" bullshit. what a loada ignorant wank, these pricks don't take the time to listen to a note of Up The Bracket or The Libertines, and they sure as hell won't bother giving Down In Albion a spin, and yet they feel justified to rant on about something they know NOTHING about.what a fuckin waste a CD space these fuckers have become. ANYONE who hears something like Don't Look Back Into The Sun or Time For Heroes or Albion, anyone who stands in light a those songs, they couldn't for a second come to any sort of conclusion other than yeah, these things are incredibly special. Even if they don't LIKE them especially. this just pisses me off to the back a my granny's teeth.
12 - Mark Saleski
i have printed out this review and promise to read it tonight if i can pry myself away from the task of writing about Springsteen's Born To Run.
13 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Mark, write, my man, write! the world needs to know the Saleski low-down with regards that exquisite set! and then, yeah, then you can read.
14 - DJRadiohead
My shite podcasts never stood a chance next to the Babyshambles CD. I just hope Pete gets it together so I don't have to do a Pete tribute ala Elliott.
15 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
DJ, two things - A- Pete'll be fine. i have faith, yes.
B- i want no more talk of "shite" podcasts. your podcast is one of the very finest on the web-net, i'll hear no words to the contrary. nor will i read said words.
16 - Matt
Duke - I really enjoyed that. I stumbled upon your Fuck Forever review a while back, put it on my favourites. When I realised this piece was by you aswell (again, I stumbled upon it) I was quite pleased. ONce again, it didnt dissapoint. I'm a trainee journalist, and feel like I should say that your the only writer I've read in a long long time who actually puts some feeling into the sentences he writes with. It's enjoyment, plain as.
One thing though, why no mention of Up the Morning? I thought it was one of the best...
17 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Matt, thank you! I'm glad you liked it. I actually thought i had mentioned Up The Morning! odd, since the track in question dictated a lot of the mood of the final bit a this. one of those things were it's so prominent in the head that you just ASSUME you mentioned it. but yes, i agree, it's a brilliant number, one that didn't sink in first time, it took a couple spins. there are a lot of tracks like that on here, in fact, which pleases me, since those are the records that end up gettin the most repeat plays. the ones that reveal EVERYTHING first time around, well, they can get a bit dull eventually.
18 - matt
yeah youre completely right. what im finding with this album is that i actually like ALL the tracks, but not necesserily at the same time. it's great, my favourite songs chop and change and it gives the album this longevity, and worthyness. it's seems a very complete album, it's sort of akin to the la's debut or ok computer, or maybe even up the bracket. ie, if you take one song out of those albums, they just dont work the same. the collection of songs fits together so well. like an entity.
i love down in albion. and i love the fact that so many supposed libs fans seem to despise it. wasnt this the album which pete always seemed to have playing in his head anyway, if you read all those early interviews?
19 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Matt, you nailed it right there; "i actually like ALL the tracks, but not necesserily at the same time."
And you're right, it's a cohesive whole as opposed to just a loada songs flung together. There was all that talk about how it's a concept album in the NME a couple weeks back, but i dunno if that holds up especially well. But it is a record about a certain mood, it starts incredibly bleakly and by Up The Morning has transformed into something altogether more uplifting.
I can understand, actually, why a lot of Libs fans wouldn't like the album, The Libertines stuff was always incredibly life-affirming and, as someone pointed out to me once, "loveable". On the first few listens there's nothing espcially life-affirming or loveable about Down In Albion as a whole, if that makes sense. it is a much darker affair, this album, than either Up The Bracket or even The Libertines. but a brilliant, rewarding and inspiring one, nonetheless.
20 - DJRadiohead
Dark and not life affirming. This keeps getting more promising.
21 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
DJ, and what makes it truly outstanding is that from out the darkness chards a light threaten to blind a fella. for every moment of despair there's a glorious burst of organ or a wheeze a harmonica or a chorus fit to flush the teeth out the head. God i love this record.
22 - Matt
(NOTE - This didn't publish for some reason, so i've copied it from the email. Aaron, Duke De Mondo)
yeah duke i agree with you again on the fact that this isnt as lovable, or maybe accessible as the previous albums. of course though, the irony is that Up the Bracket is actually a really dark album lyrically. the brilliant thing it does is to invite audiences to sing along with the band as one, screaming out things like "it's a horrorshow" and "you know how I feel out of place, until im levered off my face". it's the same thing the specials used to do ("fashion is my only culture...i talk and talk, say nothing"), and is one of the great things about rock music. the blues, i suppose.
but it annoys me intensely when my friends, who are supposedly massive, hardcore libs fans say things like "i heard 'down the albion' on the radio (they mean the single 'albion')...i thought it was a bit crap, uninspired. a bit like fuck forever." it's mad. the guy who said that to me, im supposed to be in a band with him, and i was just thinking "you really dont get it do you? you just dont understand what the libertines were ever about in the first place". it's quite amusing, but agonising at the same time.
There's a great album out there, and a lot of people arnt gonna catch on for a long while yet. Same thing happened with UTB too.
23 - Aaron Fleming
Damn you man, damn you vehemently with handfuls of raging bile excavated from deep in my gullet using precision tweezers! This is too good. A piece of art undoubtedly (get Paul Moore in here pronto).
It could easily have the effect of leaving an individual dejected completely with their own pissy work, but no, I sense only a rejuvenating and motivating from it, inspired in a word.
Great stuff!
24 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Sir Fleming, thank you, yes, but any insinuations of "pissy work" on your behalf are blown out the damn windows by everythin on generic mugwump, but YOU won't realise that, how could you? you wrote the damn things! but folks like Yours Truly, we got realisation in the yap.
and thank you again, yes.
25 - Drella
Out of all the reviews I've read so far, I should have known yours would be the only decent one. But fuck, those assholes don't even realize that sticks and stones and albion and back from the dead have been around for ages- no, they're 'filler tracks', right?
Anyway. As always, thanks for representing my (our) boy. He deserves it.