The Libertines
' 2015 comeback album
Anthems for Doomed Youth
seemed like it might be a one-off, but nine years later,
All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade
proves they're as dedicated to making new music as they are to touring. Like
Anthems
, their fourth album is considerably cleaner and sometimes safer-sounding than the raffish
Up the Bracket
and
, although the band uses this polish skillfully on "Night of the Hunter," a vignette of antihero glamor that's equal parts spaghetti western, film noir, and Swan Lake. There's also a little more fire in the performances this time around, especially on the
Clash
-y punk of "Oh Shit" and on "Run Run Run," the entertainingly self-aware echo of their glory days that kicks off the album.
Carl Barât
,
Peter Doherty
, and company spend as much time riffing on their status as rock & roll survivors on
Esplanade
as they did mythologizing their elegantly wasted twenties two decades prior, but
Doherty
's fascination with mortality takes on a more philosophical patina with "Songs They Never Play on the Radio"'s wry midlife angst. A mature perspective can still be rebellious -- as the years go by, the list of things to protest grows longer -- and
is frequently most engaging when the band reflects on the changing world around them. "Merry Old England," a cutting portrait of the attitudes that greet refugees and immigrants, is one of the album's highlights, as is "Shiver"'s driving look at the irrelevance of traditions. ~ Heather Phares