What crappy news. One of the best bands in England in the last few years has been Dirty Pretty Things, the brainchild of ex-Libertines guitarist Carl Barat. Their debut disc, Waterloo to Anywhere, was amazing — high-powered rock with the right attitude and texture of punk. It was simply a fantastic sound — much better than ex-Libertine bandmate Pete Doherty’s Babyshambles. And DPT just put out a good follow-up album, Romance at Short Notice.

Here’s the statement from Carl Barat on NME this morning:

“It is with some sadness we announce the farewell of the Dirty Pretty Things. It’s been a glorious three years which we all would gladly live out again, but it is time for us to try new things (not The Libertines).

“We are reluctant to give up touring but will give the last waltz everything. We have and are determined to go out as we came in, after which we all have other ventures to be getting on with and splendid future plans.

“Heartfelt thanks to all who made it what it was, much love and we’ll see you on the road.”

I’m real pissed that I never got to see the band come to America. I am hoping that Carl Barat starts a new project soon with the same sound he captured so well with Dirty Pretty Things. And notice how Barat strongly emphasizes that there will be no Libertines reunion because of the DPT split. Interesting.

The great irony: Pete Doherty is still able to keep his Babyshambles project alive after all the shit he’s been thorugh. Life sometimes has a sick sense of humor.

Tut sich Carl Barât einen Gefallen damit, vor den Release seines Dirty Pretty Things Zweiterks “Romance At Short Notice” laut über eine eventuelle The Libertines Reunion nachzudenken? Es sagt auf jeden Fall viel über die Meinung dieses Musikers zu seiner Band aus. Sie scheint für ihn nur Mittel, die Wartezeit bis zur Wiedervereinigung mit Pete Doherty zu überbrücken. Hat für Carl Barât das neue Album dann überhaupt Relevanz? Eine Frage, die wohl nur er selbst beantworten kann, dafür spricht der tatsächliche Release und, dass Carl im Vorfeld des Releases über eine The Libertines Reunion spricht, nichts dürfte den Dirty Pretty Things mehr Presse bringen.

Ein Problem ist nun, dass die Musik bei solchen Überlegungen schnell in den Hintergrund rückt und die ist von keinem schlechten Kaliber, anders war es vom besseren der beiden Libertines Songwriter auch nicht zu erwarten. Für die Aufnahmen zu “Romance At Short Notice” begaben sich Dirty Pretty Things nach Los Angeles und kamen zurück mit einem lupenreinen, archetypisch britischem Stück Indie-Rock. Gleich beim Opener “Buzzards & Crows” hört man das viel zitierte riesige Songwriter-Genie Carl Barât’s heraus, jedes Instrument am richtigen Platz gepaart mit Carl Barât’s fast beiläufig wirkendem Gesang. Leider geht es gleich bei Song 2 “Hippy’s Son” ziemlich unterirdisch weiter, die besungene Attitüde wirkt aufgesetzt und die Instrumentierung will in ihrem Wechsel aus Härte in den Strophen und softem Refrain einfach nicht zusammenpassen. Ähnlich durchwachsen der Rest von “Romance At Short Notice”, fast an die Kooks erinnernde Songperlen, wie “Plastic Hearts” oder “Truth Begins” treffen auf Langweiler und nicht zu Ende gedachte Stücke, wie “Best Face” oder eben “Hippy’s Son”. Die vorausgegangene Frage weitergedacht vermittelt das Album das Gefühl Carl Barât wäre beim Songwriting einfach nicht einhundert prozentig bei der Sache gewesen, vielleicht weil er auf Pete wartete.

Video zu “Tired Of England”:

Myspace der Band

Iain WhiteTapes

Dirty Pretty Things – Romance At Short Notice

Ill resist the common album review practice of providing a short history of the band over a few needless paragraphs. You know the score, half of Barat’s musical past comes from the ramshackle madness of The Libertines, whilst his other half is more of a polished chart chasing indie pop affair. Either of these variations would actually have been perfectly fine with me, but therein lies the problem, ‘Romance at short notice’ is neither here nor there.

It starts promisingly enough on track one ‘Buzzards & Crows’, where a slightly disturbing Circus type chime runs through the verse before Carlos spunkily churns out the chorus. Its not long though before it all goes a bit Pete Tong. Track two ‘Hippy’s son’ has Carl spitting out his lyrics with a tad too much venom, which comes off as a wee bit cringey. The ‘Hush Hush My Love’ chorus slightly redeems the track, although it feels oddly placed within this rough arsed, dog eared track. Meanwhile efforts such as ‘Plastic Hearts’ & ‘Come Closer’ are pleasant enough but anyone who remembers ‘From Waterloo to anywhere’ will be begging for ‘Deadwood’ or ‘You fuckin love it’.

The second half of the album starts to resemble something you could get your teeth into, where ‘Kicks or consumption’ & ‘Best face’ hammer out a decent tempo and all of a sudden things don’t seem quite so grim. It cant last of course and the Buzzcocks b-side standard of ‘Chinese Dogs’ is enough to reduce this listener back to the head in hands position.

On tracks like ‘Faultlines’ with its annoyingly familiar ‘Ohh la la la la la la’ I cant escape a dogged feeling of déjà vu of how the Lib’s had done it all before, but better. Worse still, is ‘Tired of England’, where the band attempt to stick up for dear old Blighty in the face of criticism. Despite its positive sentiments I found myself longing for ‘Downing Street Kindling’ by Larrikin Love, a track basically stating how shite England is, but at least it had a bit of a spring about its cockney urchin step, which is more than can be said for this tiresome track. Although the line ‘The Queen Of England sits on her thrown of bingo cards and chicken bones’ is enough to raise a smile, albeit a rather confused one.

When this album at its best its average, when at its lowest its dire. Overall making for an LP that’s probably worth a Butchers Look but essentially as bland as Meg Whites pasty white face (sorry Meg).

On the above mentioned worst track (and new single!?!) ‘Tired of England’, Mr B sings about the ‘Blues, the Greys, the Green, the Brown’ well quite, and that describes this album pretty nicely really. Some more of The Yellows, the Oranges and maybe even a few Polka Dots for next album ay lads?

Rich Melvin

The title of DPT’s latest album has been attributed to Saki, who concludes his short story “The Open Window” with the line: “Romance at short notice was her specialty.” 

I, inaccurately, assumed that this was a suitably Edwardian euphemism for a love that charges by the hour. Upon closer inspection, that is to say, actually reading Saki’s story, it appears that ‘romance’ is meant in the literary and not the literal sense. So it is that DPT’s follow-up to Waterloo to Anywhere delivers a dozen impressive adventures with an urgency rightly labelled as romance(s) at short notice.

The album opens with Buzzards and Crows whose Sergeant Pepper styling’s suggests a sound that is undeniably English. Barat and co. then grind out Hippy’s Son by blending a coarseness of composition and lyric that it not entirely unexpected from DPT, and respite when it comes is in the form of Carl’s comforting refrain “hush, hush my love”.  Plastic Hearts is a catchy invective on our disconnect, tapping into a mood of Neo-Thatcherism (or is that post-Blair?) with an anti-Britpop pulse.

Tired of England, a deserved choice as first single released (at least on Australian airwaves), is a cautionary tale (“don’t drink yourself to a lonely death / in casinos, on crystal meth”) set to a beguiling beat.  The album slides into Romantic territory with Come Closer, and I do mean capital ‘R’ Romantic: Blake, Byron, Shelley, and Keats – those blokes for whom England was their muse suffuses this charming track.  Faultlines, Kicks or Consumption, and Best Face, shift from the lightness of the preceding tracks and are replaced with grimmer, grittier thoughts and sounds. On these tracks the tempo ratchets past the easy beats of earlier and submits to a harder, slightly industrial mood.

Truth Begins is bleakly beautiful, it captures the agony of despair (“you lose your will / and I can lend you mine”) in a manner reminiscent of the late Eliot Smith’s Baby Britain: “nothing is going to drag me down / to a death that’s not worth cheating”.  DPT’s desperate pace slows to calmly accuse: “you said the pills would sort me out / embolden me against the manifestations of fear and doubt”.  DPT’s truth, to “just hold on for tomorrow”, is something to believe in.  The last three tracks – Chinese Dogs, The North and Blood on My Shoes – are each products of DPT’s diverse musical influences –  punk, rock, indie – offering pounding drums, floating guitar plucks and soaring strings.

The act of writing, composing, creating songs is something of a lost art, or at least the realisation that it is an art appears to be foreign in today’s Top 40 landscape.  Which is why, sadly, it is not redundant to praise DPT for the lyricism of their lyrics.  Aside from the few lines quoted herein, any band that can an open a song by protesting “you can’t mix with drugs with politics” (as DPT do on Plastic Hearts) has a place in my heart.

Romance at Short Notice is an album that has been crafted with thought and it would be remiss to mistake its craftsmanship for contrivance, just as the lyrics are clever without being an exercise in cleverness.  If you enjoy your compulsive listening peppered with contemplative musings then DPT won’t disappoint.

PM: 8/10

Dirty Pretty Things: Romance at Short Notice (2008)

Kuhu ma jäingi?

Teil oli Franz Ferdinand ja ma väga kadestan teid. Londonisse nad mängima vähemalt plaanide järgi niipea ei jõua.

Möödund esmaspäeval oli Dirty Pretty Thingsi teise albumi ilmumistähtaeg. Seda märgistati kontserdiga HMV Oxfordi tänava plaadipoes. Kontsert oli tasuta, kuid seda lähemalt uudistama pääsemiseks ja hiljemalt ka autogrammide jagamisele pääsemiseks oli tarvis käepael nihverdada päeva jooksul. Ja kuna neid oli vaid 300 siis ise südametunnistuse asi, kui vara või hilja sellele järele minna. Mina läksin vara, sest ei tahtnud ilma jääda (nii lähedal ja täitsa rahata) ja midagi targemat ka teha polnud. Töötu inimese luksus.

Kontsert ise oli hea. Carl olla pärast kommenteerinud, et kõlas nagu toidupoes oleks mänginud, aga mina küll heli pärast ei nurise. Pigem poepoolse korralduse üle. Aga ah neh, mis seal ikka. Niisiis kolmas kord neid näha ja ei ole veel küllalt. Ma ütlen veelkord – kui kuskil festivalil või tuuril jäävad ette, ärge jätke vaatamata! Pilti ega videot mult pole, netis kuskil kindlasti. Aga mina, kõige lähemalt tulija jõudsin kohale muidugi kõige hiljem ja oli täitsa taga otsas. Autogrammijagamisest. Polnud kunagi sellisele asjale sattunud ja kui uudsest kogemusest ei saanud ära öelda. Nüüd mul on siis autogrammid kah. Hmm. Üks lemmikbändidest, aga erilist rõõmu sest talismanist või kogemusest tunda ei oska. Kuigi tore oli korraks igaühega tõtt vaadata. Midagi teha ega öelda muidugi ei osanud, kuigi moment selleks siiski oleks olnud, oleks väga tahtnud. Aga konveierlindi üritus ja tsipa kahju bändist ja fännidest. Oeh.

Paar päeva hiljem tehti Londonist väljas üllatuskontsert, nii kahesajale inimesele. Olin teadlik ja oleks saanud minnagi, aga mugavus tuli peale või enesealalhoiuinstinkt, teagi kumb – ei meeldi üksi X asulates öö läbi hommikust rongi oodata. Kohalolnud muidugi vandusid, et oli parim kontsert, mis bänd eales teinud. Nagu alati, eksole? Ei, aga päriselt, see olla nii hea olnud et…kougin siia ka video üles.

Wondering live at Hertford Marquee secret gig 3rd July

Mõeldud oli see soojenduseks nende Hyde Parki Wireless festivali esinemisele järgneval päeval. Nad kuulutati välja kui Morrissey külalised, ei saa sotti kuda või miks, aga ok. Nad tegid pealaval reedel umbes pooletunnise seti, peamiselt vanemad lood. Veidi hiljem esinesid nad teisel väiksemal laval uuesti. Aga mida tegin mina eelmisel kolmapäeval? Selles järgmises postituses.

Ahjaa, kas seda mainisin, et sügisel on neil järgmine tuur? Ja seni mängivad veel paaril euroopa festivalil.

Sorri, inimesed, ei käinud sel aastal Kumu Ööl. Vabandan nende ees, kes otsinguga siia sattunud. Kuidas tänavu siis ka oli?

Kirjutan hoopis Dirty Pretty Thingsi uuest albumist. Või, tähendab et ei – ei kirjuta veel uuest albumist. See pole veel ilmunud ju. Aga kuulata saab teda sellegipoolest ja lausa legaalselt. Siit. Kõik lood ei mängi, ehk NME võtab kätte ja parandab oma tehniliselt apsud pea ära. Üsnagi erinev helipilt võrreldes Waterloo to Anywhere’ga. Igatahes tunda, et palju rohkem tööd ja mõtet on sisse pandud, kui eelmisse albumisse. Bänd on ise ühes intervjuus maininud, et teise albumi puhul tahtsid nad postpungist/garaažirokist eemalduda, midagi uut teha. Julge samm, arvestades, et nad tolles žanris mängleva kergusega opereerisid. Esmamulje järgi tundub, et otsus oli õigustatud – enam neid kitsalt lahterdada ei saa. Ma arvan, et see album on selline, mis jääb mitmeks kuuks plaadimängijasse üksluiseks muutumata.

Ja ikkagi pean toonitama ja soovitama – kui neid kontserdil peaks võimalus nägema sattuda – ärge üldse kahelge, NAD ON ELUSAST PEAST ILGELT HEAD. Pst, oktoobris tuuritavad taas Inglismaad. Mõningail suvefestivalidel peaks nad ka esinema. Euroopa tuurist pole praegu veel haisugi. Aga mul on tunne, et midagi võib toimuma hakata küll. Nädala pärast peaks siis DPT möll lahti minema ja nad peaks kõikjal meediat mööda laiali määritud olema, loodame vaid, et kõigi tervised ilusti vastu peavad.

Muide, olen isegi nende Tired of Englandi videot MTV2’st näinud.

Dirty Pretty Things (pictured above by the Thames River in a photo by Roger Sargent) are back, with their new single, “Tired of England,” due to be released on June 23rd in the UK. (Dirty Pretty Things’ new album, Romance At Short Notice, follows on June 30th in the UK.)

“Tired of England” is a catchy piece of power-pop, sounding like a combination of The Smiths circa 1984 and The Kinks around the time of their stellar Face To Face album. “Tired of England” is less heavy than most of the material on Dirty Pretty Things’ 2006 debut, Waterloo To Anywhere.

Dirty Pretty Things (which feature ex-Libertine Carl Barat on guitar and vocals, fellow ex-Libertine Gary Powell on drums, Didz Hammond on bass, and Anthony Rossomando on guitar) will be playing some of the big outdoor music festivals in the UK this summer. They will be appearing at the O2 Wireless Festival in London’s Hyde Park on July 4th, the Reading Festival on August 23rd, and the Leeds Festival on August 24th.

To watch the video for “Tired of England” by Dirty Pretty Things, click below:

For a free download of the Dirty Pretty Things’ track “Hippy’s Son,” which will be featured on the upcoming Romance At Short Notice album, go to the band’s official Web site at http://www.dirtyprettythingsband.com/ and click where indicated.

For more information on Dirty Pretty Things, go to:
http://www.dirtyprettythingsband.com/
http://www.myspace.com/dirtyprettythingsofficial

Hippy son es el nombre de la canción que Dirty Pretty Things ha sacado para descarga gratuita en su web.

El grupo del ex-Libertines Carl Barat sacará al mercado su segundo álbum de estudio “Romance at short notice” el próximo día 30 de Junio. Antes, el día 23 saldrá su primer single “Tired of england”.

De momento, apagan un poco la sed de sus incondicionales con Hippy son, y además gratis.

Para conseguir la canción, has de entrar en su página principal y suscribirte al “mailing list” donde enviarán periódicamente información de la banda a tu mail.

De momento no hemos escuchado la canción, así que agradeceríamos que alguien comentara sus impresiones sobre Hippy son, y que le parece que va a ser este nuevo disco.

Vía | NME

Web | Dirty Pretty Things

According to an article on the XFM London Web site, Dirty Pretty Things have announced the title of their new album, the tracklist, and the UK release date. The album will be titled Romance At Short Notice and will be released on June 30th in the UK. The first single from the album, titled “Tired Of England,” will be out on June 23rd in the UK.

The album was recorded in Los Angeles by several different producers. The tracklist is as follows:

1. Buzzards And Crows
2. Hippy Son
3. Plastic Hearts
4. Tired Of England
5. Come Closer
6. Fault Lines
7. Kicks Or Consumption
8. Best Face
9. Truth Begins
10. Chinese Dogs
11. The North
12. Blood On My Shoes

To read the full article on the XFM London Web site, go to http://www.xfm.co.uk/news/2008/dirty-pretty-things-reveal-album-title.

According to the band’s MySpace page, they will be playing dates in the UK and Ireland over the next few months. No US dates are listed yet, but hopefully those shows will be announced soon.

For additional information on Dirty Pretty Things, go to:
http://www.dirtyprettythingsband.com
http://www.myspace.com/dirtyprettythingsofficial