The Libertines - Up The Bracket

I was out of the country for pretty much the exact duration of The Libertines' rise to prominence. On my return, I was confronted with a whole slew of guitar bands with inexplicably grand reputations.

I remember the first emotion I felt on hearing The Libertines: It was the most nonplussed I've ever been. I was painfully nonplussed. I was agonisingly indifferent.

Over the years, I attempted to deduce what 'all the fuss' was about. I eventually narrowed it down to two things: One, they were quite newsworthy because Pete Docherty kept doing crimes and stuff and secondly, their unique selling point musically was to be a bit ramshackle and to slur when they sang.

People will tell you that it's a fine line between genius and crapness, but it isn't really. What I've learnt by listening to The Libertines however, is that the line between crapness and mediocrity is finer than I thought. I always thought that there was 'utter crap' and then 'crap' and then 'bad' and a whole host of categories before you got to 'mediocre' but The Libertines neatly straddle that divide. They're either utterly crap or mediocre. They're truly groundbreaking in that regard.