{"id":41070,"date":"2008-08-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-27T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/waterloo-to-anywhere\/"},"modified":"2008-08-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-27T00:00:00","slug":"waterloo-to-anywhere","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/waterloo-to-anywhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Waterloo To Anywhere"},"content":{"rendered":"

2004 was a tumultuous year for all\u2026 Brad and Jen on the rocks? Bennifer called off? Britney marrying and divorcing\u2026whoever it was that she married and divorced. For those of us who could care less, and thankfully we\u2019re numerous, the only split worth mourning was that of The Libertines. Formed back in 1997 in London<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, The Libertines was hailed as one of the greatest English indie acts of recent years despite putting out only two albums. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Fundamental to the band’s success was the discernible chemistry between frontmen Pete Doherty and Carl Bar\u00e2t, who each delivered lyrics and melody in equal measure. The band\u2019s decree \u201cto the top of the world, or to the bottom of that river\u201d (referring to London<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>\u2019s River Thames) seemed to sum up their career, which was eventually torn apart by Doherty\u2019s drug addiction and growing tension with Bar\u00e2t. Following the split of The Libertines, Doherty played under Babyshambles (a then side project) and Bar\u00e2t went on to form Dirty Pretty Things.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Waterloo To Anywhere, <\/i>released in 2006, was Dirty Pretty Things\u2019 first offering. Admittedly, I was a little apprehensive about how either Libertine spin-off band would fare. Doherty always appeared to be the one who carried the band, but this disc shows that the sound of The Libertines came down to Bar\u00e2t. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The problem is that Dirty Pretty Things\u2019 debut doesn\u2019t seem to make enough of a departure from this style to hold their own. This, coupled with the absence of the usual Doherty\/Bar\u00e2t sharp lyric collaborations, leaves this sounding like an underachieving Libertines record. Don\u2019t get me wrong, the lyrics are in no way god-awful; there are still some little gems throughout the album, and in some fortunate saving grace, the band\u2019s power-chord clang style seems to work with Bar\u00e2t\u2019s austere vocal delivery.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The first single, \u201cBang Bang You\u2019re Dead,\u201d can survive a few listens, but the over-repetitive chorus gets a bit tedious after a while. I suppose it\u2019s owed to this song that I bought the album in the first place, but the charm quickly wore off. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

The opening track, the exhilarating head-shaker \u201cDeadwood,\u201d sets a higher bar for the album, and followed up by the upbeat \u201cDoctors and Dealers,\u201d gave the impression I had made a good little investment here. Carl Bar\u00e2t\u2019s vocals at times were reticent of The Jam\u2019s Paul Weller (yes, yes bold statement, I know\u2026) — up until then, it was all going swimmingly.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But towards the middle it all started heading south. There was a certain sameness about most of the tracks that revolved around this overworked power chording business that lacked melody, and aside from \u201cThe Enemy\u201d and \u201cWondering,\u201d which were a welcome break from this style, nothing was really exceptional. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

On the whole, lyrically and musically, Waterloo To Anywhere<\/i> was a bit of a disappointment. Obviously Dirty Pretty Things\u2019 debut was going to be faced with much speculation. It neither crashed and burned nor soared, and unfortunately for them, it didn\u2019t stay on the radar for all too long either. As an album, there\u2019s not much going for it and I don\u2019t think it has much staying power, but there are definitely a few highlights on the album that are worth your time.<\/o:p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":29490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8267],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-41070","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dirty-pretty-things","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41070"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}