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Mark Mccord

Dirty Pretty Things

Waterloo to Anywhere

(Mercury)

While his former bandmate Pete Doherty cultivates a cult of personality through tabloid notoriety, Carl Barat has been busy putting together - at impressive speed - a body of work intended to put some space between him and the ill-fated Libertines.

Unsurprisingly for the one-time second fiddle of a band that was at best average, it isn't very clear space.

Dirty Pretty Things, a name we can assume was taken from the club night Barat hosted in the quiet Libertine moments when Doherty was spangled on smack and crack, sounds like a more polished version of the urchin-indie pioneers. It's ragged, raw and,  at times, exhilarating.

But it sounds too much like the Libertines Part 2. First  single Bang Bang You're Dead has that rollicking jolly-along carnival sound of the  Libs' Don't Look Back into the Sun, but without the drug drama, and  You F****** Love It sounds like the grown-up brother of What a Waster.

With former Cooper Temple Clause bassist Didz Hammond rounding out a lineup  that comprises essentially the Libertines that toured when Doherty was in the slammer, Dirty Pretty Things are undoubtedly  a tighter, more professional unit. The production values have improved, too, no doubt a function of the financial clout Barat can command courtesy of his former association.

But Barat's obsession with jaunty ditties - Gentry Cove wouldn't be  out of place in an episode of Captain Pugwash - undermines  any of this album's rock sensibilities. And although the absence of any discernible tunes shouldn't be held against them, the dearth of originality should.



Dirty Pretty Things