The Libertines are back with their first album in nine years, All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade, which will arrive March 8, 2024 through Casablanca/Republic Records. The 11-track effort was produced by Dimitri Tikovoï (the Horrors, Charli XCX, Becky Hill) and recorded at the Albion Rooms in Margate, U.K. earlier this year. First single “Run Run Run” is out now.
All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade was conceived by principal group members Pete Doherty and Carl Barat during a September 2022 excursion to Jamaica. There, the pair rediscovered the songwriting chemistry that made them one of the most popular British bands of the Aughts.
“Our first record was born out of panic, and disbelief that we were actually allowed to be in a studio; the second was born of total strife and misery; the third was born of complexity; this one feels like we were all actually in the same place, at the same speed, and we really connected,” Barat says.
“We’re over the moon, and the ball is in the back of the net… and I’m chuffed for the lads!” says Doherty, whose struggles with sobriety are chronicled in the new documentary Stranger in My Own Skin. “I feel like we’ve completed a cycle of some kind as a band, and finally now we can add these songs to the set list, because we’ve got some bangers in there. Now we’ve opened the hotel and used the studio ourselves and it’s all worked out – more Libertines records? I should hope so!”
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Of “Run Run Run,” Barat observes, “It’s about being trapped, and trying to escape your dismal life, a bit like the man in Bukowski’s ‘Post Office.’ The worst thing for The Libertines would be to get stuck in a ‘Run-run-run’ rut, constantly trying to relive our past.”
Here is the track list for All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade:
Run, Run, Run
Mustang
Have A Friend
Merry Old Englans
Man With The Melody
Oh Shit
Night Of The Hunter
Baron’s Claw
Shiver
Be Young
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