These came out in 2005 — or at least that’s when I got ’em. Here’s what I said about them back then (with some minor editing):
I usually scorn reissues from less than six months ago. But I am willing to forgive the folks behind this upgraded version of The Libertines’ latest for two reasons:
1) The scrappy Brits’ disc didn’t get the audience it deserved the first time, so this seems less a cash-grab than a relaunch, and 2) The hour-long DVD has good footage of the on-again, off-again quartet and doomed frontman Pete Doherty. Still, it’s a pity they didn’t include it the first time around instead of burning fans by making them shell out for the album again. More’s the pity they didn’t combine it with the simultaneously released deluxe version of the EP What Became Of The Likely Lads, which includes two versions of the song, four live cuts and a studio leftover.
FIRST RELEASED: August.
HIGHLIGHTS: The album has autbiographical, Clash-inspired post-punk gems like Can’t Stand Me Now, The Man Who Would be King and Likely Lads.
EXTRAS! EXTRAS! Nothing on the album (except, ahem, plenty of space for those EP tracks) — but the DVD has songs from a superb Japanese gig in 2003, a cut from a 2002 Madrid show, 10 minutes of Doherty and partner Carl Barat “busking for beer” in a pub, an award-show performance and the usual videos, interviews, tour documentaries and photos.
