Dirty Pretty Things
Waterloo To Anywhere

THE REVIEW

An appropriate response to the inconclusive Babyshambles of Pete Doherty, the dark and toxic soul of the now-disbanded Libertines, had to necessarily come from his former companion in mischief Carl Barat, not coincidentally regarded between the two as the “sensible good guy”.

Barat, whose sole merit is that of being a musician above all, proves with his new band that he has fully capitalized on the experiences accumulated during the brief yet intense adventure with the Libertines.

The musical recipe of the Dirty Pretty Things, whose lineup is predominantly composed of members from Barat's previous band, doesn't hold any particular surprises for us: the twelve tracks of 'Waterloo To Anywhere,' flawless as they may be in their syncopated rhythm, nonetheless display all the limitations of an increasingly repetitive and annoyingly “self-referential” genre.
The myriad of Anglo-Saxon bands influenced by Barat and Doherty have contributed, by saturating the music market and the ears of the audience, to flattening the British music scene and giving the paradoxical impression that the Dirty Pretty Things are almost clones of the new groups currently in vogue.

Songs like the single Bang Bang You’re Dead, Blood Thirsty Bastards and the penultimate Last Of The Small Town Playboys are well-structured, perhaps even too much so. The feeling is that Barat, unlike the reckless Doherty, has played the teacher's pet a bit too much. The result?

An album slightly above average, yet still boring and disappointing.