Singles

Dirty Pretty Things - Deadwood

Emily Tartanella 21/06/2006

Rating: 4/5

If the world of rock teaches us anything, it's to expect the unexpected. When the Smiths broke up, who didn't place their money on the superfluously talented Johnny Marr making it big? Instead it was Mozza who pulled off Viva Hate and left us wondering if Bigmouth didn't have something to say. At the demise of the Stone Roses, who would've predicted that the vocally dismal Ian Brown would manage to keep the King Monkey title for nearly two decades, leaving John Squire in the dust?
And if you can look back to the days before Potty Pete and Cocaine Kate, you'd remember that Mr. Doherty was the one to bet on. With Carl laid up post-surgery, and the whole doomed poet chic on Pete's side, it seemed the man who put the punk in the Libertines was out of the picture. But after a seemingly endless tabloid rotation and the disappointing Down in Albion, it seems Carl Barat may have taken the lead.
And this single, the second off of Waterloo to Anywhere, just proves it. It's a rollicking riot of a song which could've featured on Up the Bracket, complete with a vicious bite and Barat's droll delivery. The band must be exhausted of the Where's-Pete lyrical search that occurs in every song (even if “Bang Bang You're Dead” was a total giveaway) but it's tough to read lines like “And of the years that rolled by/Yeah some were so good/But now I know that/You were the coward” any other way. Then again, maybe we should take from the spirit of “Deadwood” and say farewell to the past. It's always the quiet ones.