The Libertines return with ‘Run Run Run’ and announce new album ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’
The Libertines have returned with new single ‘Run Run Run’, as well as announcing details of their long-awaited fourth album ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ and some intimate Margate shows.
Arriving on March 8, ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ is the long-mooted follow-up to 2015’s ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’, with the first taster arriving in the form of launch single ‘Run Run Run’ – a classic yet subtly raucous Libs indie dancefloor anthem that sees them reflect on their standing after more than two decades, as Carl Barat begins: “It’s the lifelong project of a life on the lash”.
“It’s about being trapped, and trying to escape your dismal life, a bit like the man in Bukowski’s Post Office,” said Barat of the track. “The worst thing for The Libertines would be to get stuck in a ‘Run-run-run’ rut – constantly trying to relive our past.”
As well as sharing a name with Erich Maria Remarque’s anti-war novel, the album’s title is in honour of the band’s Margate hotel, studio, restaurant and bar, The Albion Rooms – which is also depicted on the sleeve with a dramatic cast of characters from the world of faded seaside glamour.
Consisting of 11 new tracks with songwriting credits shared among all four of the band, ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ was produced by Dimitri Tikovoï (The Horrors/Charli XCX/Becky Hill) and recorded at The Albion Rooms in just four weeks back in February and March of 2023, before being finished over a wee at La Ferme de Gestein Studios in Normandy. Additional production and mixing comes from Dan Grech-Marguerat (Lana Del Rey/Liam Gallagher/Paul McCartney).
Despite having been attempting work on writing the album for some years, the indie veterans have said that their previously reported sessions at Geejam in Port Antonio, Jamaica
saw Barat and Pete Doherty’s chemistry reform, before returning to Margate to reconvene with bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell where, as Doherty explained, “we really came together as a band for “a moment of rare peace and unity, with all the members contributing.”
Doherty continued: “We’re over the moon, the ball is in the back of the net, and I’m chuffed for the lads!”
“I feel like we’ve completed a cycle of some kind as a band, and finally now we can add these songs to the setlist, because we’ve got some bangers in there. Now we’ve opened the hotel and used the studio ourselves and it’s all worked out – more Libertines records? I should hope so!”
Barat, meanwhile, added: “Our first record was born out of panic, and disbelief that we were actually allowed to be in a studio; the second was born of total strife and misery; the third was born of complexity; this one feels like we were all actually in the same place, at the same speed, and we really connected.”
The Libertines’ new album ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ is available on CD, deluxe CD, 12” vinyl in limited edition coloured variants, deluxe double vinyl cassette and digital download on March 8.
Fans who pre-order the album will be offered the chance to purchase tickets for ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade – described as “two days of special acoustic and electric live shows by The Libertines” at the 500-capacity Lido in Margate on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 December. VIP after party tickets at the Albion Rooms and Justine’s nightclub, including full band DJ sets, will also be available.
The tracklist to ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ is:
‘Run, Run, Run’
‘Mustang’
‘Have A Friend’
‘Merry Old England’
‘Man With The Melody’
‘Oh Shit’
‘Night Of The Hunter’
‘Baron’s Claw’
‘Shiver’
‘Be Young’
‘Songs They Never Play On The Radio’
Speaking to NME back in 2019, Doherty said that the band had been exploring a number of ambitious directions on new material, likening it to the diversity of The Clash‘s divisive ‘Sandinista’.
Drummer Gary Powell then told NME in August last year that the band were “not going to try and reinvent the wheel… but I think we can push the boat out a little more while still bringing something that has the same emotional integrity and dynamism that the audience craves when they come to a Libertines show.”
In the years since ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’, Doherty has released the albums ‘Hamburg Demonstrations‘, ‘Peter Doherty & the Puta Madres’ and last year’s acclaimed ‘The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime‘ with Frédéric Lo.
A new documentary about his life Stranger In My Own Skin, made by director-musician and Doherty’s wife Katia deVidas, will hit cinemas on November 9.
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Andrew Trendell
NME
