10 Awesome Rock Bands With One Terrible Album
8. Anthems For Doomed Youth - The Libertines (2015)
It's rare that a group like The Libertines ever make a triumphant return to glory.
In the 2000s, these guys captured the imagination of the youth; lighting a fire under the British rock scene, with brash, poetic lyrics; sloppy but exciting guitar jangles and a romanticised notion of traditional England. They boasted the confident bravado of youth and a hard living attitude to life. The nervous and frantic excitement, their music elicited, was all the more poignant because you had a feeling, that nothing that burned that fast, could possibly last.
Sure enough, after two great albums the group disbanded. Pete Doherty shambled around with a new band for a while, before disappearing into drug addiction. Carl Barât had slightly more success with Dirty Pretty Things, but nothing came close to The Libertines.
In 2014 they announced they were officially getting back together to release a new record. Pete was clean and everyone was excited. But the album just fell flat. Critics were encouraging, but the reality was, it was just a jumble of old concepts and tired anachronisms. This was a bunch of middle-aged rockers, attempting to relive their salad days.