The Libertines - Up The Bracket

Track released September 30th 2003

After watching 'There are no innocent bystanders' I got all emotional and found the obvious thing to do would be to write about one of my favourite tracks they recorded, Up The Bracket. The Libertines pretty much changed my life, before having them introduced to me I listened to nothing but metal, these guys showed me a type of music that had a message, music with spirit, written from the heart, I was blown away. Listening back to both albums now is amazing for several reasons, the main reason being that they haven't aged, they're still as relevant as they ever were.

The reason I have chose this track above the others is simply because it's my favourite, it's not their best or most successful but there's a charm about it which did nothing but increase my love for them. Taken from their first album, of the same name, the song takes it's name from a cockney saying about punching someone in the throat, the violence is shown in the song, as is it's London roots. The song tells the story of the protagonist of the piece being offered money for a woman's address and the protagonist boldly declining their offer, being chased and warned, then experiencing the same offer again yet more money for the address and still declining despite being warned about basically ending up left dead in a hole. The reason I love this track so much, and the whole first album for that matter is that it showed so much hope, it showed the love between Carl and Pete, the follow up, The Libertines showed a band knowing their time was limited and the damaged already done to their relationship was unrepairable in a lot of ways. The first album showed hope, as did this track and in a lot of ways that's a message that is far more powerful than singing about broken relationships.