The Libertines - 'Time For Heroes' (Rough Trade) Released 29/10/07

‘Best of’ albums normally signify one of three things: the imminent end of a band, a posthumous cash-in, some kind of Christmas special, or all of the above. They are cooked up by management to re-ignite flagging careers or milk the last bit of money from a long dead cash cow. Rough Trade release ‘Time for Heroes: The Best of The Libertines’ is no exception. From the opening feral yowl of ‘Up The Bracket’ its clear to see why it’s bouncing stop-start rhythms continue to dominate indie dance-floors across the land.

Classics like title track ‘Time For Heroes' and ‘Boys In The Band’ are always good for a sing-along and bit of late night camaraderie. Their talent for storytelling shines through on the iconic ‘What A Waster’, channelling The Jam’s half mumbled vocals into a series of charmingly degenerate characters.
It’s the tunes that really sell them, and the horribly overplayed strains of ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ can’t fail to draw a smile, even if it is on a Match of The Day montage.

There are low points though; ‘What Katie Did’s’ twee musings and its subsequent Supermodel namesake are probably best left alone. ‘The Delaney’ is ‘The Boy Looked At Johnny’s’ poor underfed cousin. All the elements are there, but in painfully diluted form. The glass-shattering punk of ‘Mayday’ provides welcome relief, even though it’s decidedly more Bouncing Souls than The Clash. Certain publications continue to doggedly pursue (or attempt to create) a legend around The Libertines and subsequent projects Dirty Pretty Things and Babyshambles. This need for a new gang of Sex Pistol style antiheroes undoubtedly added fuel to the fire, but it doesn’t take a genius to know it was never built to last.

‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ is the break up and the confessional all rolled into one, as Pete Doherty and Carl Barat spar off each-other one last time. Reliving the good old days and doling out recrimination in turn, with lines like "you twisted and tore our love apart" describing the end of the affair. Memories of times when Pete stopped turning up for gigs (both times Gigwise went to see them) fails to sully the pure, unadulterated joy of the bouncing along to ‘I Get Along’. Even the most hardened Libs haters can’t resist joining in with Pete’s lazily slurred retort, "fuck em".

There are still those out there clinging onto the Libertines dream, including the band themselves. ‘What Became Of The Likely Lads’ reads like an extract from Pete’s blood-spattered diary, droning "what became of the dreams we had?". With Pete’s charming visage still dominating the papers, the band will remain public property for a long time to come. For record companies and writers of shamelessly hashed together tell all books, there’s gold in them there hills. "An ending fitting for the start?", possibly not.