Does anyone else besides me think the sleeve for the new Libertines album is such utter shite?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I'm not even going to begin to beat up on the Libertines musically, as I feel I'm hardly qualified. For me, they are just...mediocre. Not quite HATEable, but nothing to phone mum about, either. But when I saw the SLEEVE for the new album, I mean...isn't it all too obvious the message is heroin? And what's with the guy standing next to him? I mean just HOW drugged out are they?

I'm just saying, even if they are completely drugged out, that is no reason for a record sleeve that is so utterly lacking in creativity, is it?

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0002L581I.01._PE19_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

It is a bit contrived, yes. I quite liked "Can't Stand Me Now," but the rest of the album doesn't do much for me, regardless of Mick Jones' production and fawning comparisons to the Clash.

The cover shot reminds me of those early pictures of the Manic Street Preachers.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:16 (twenty-one years ago)

If "Can't Stand Me Now" were my sleeve I would blow my nose on it.

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:17 (twenty-one years ago)

heh now I've just read yr post Alex. whoopsie

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahaha.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:19 (twenty-one years ago)

someone's put an E in Alex's bongwater

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:25 (twenty-one years ago)

yeahhh

find me one review of their new album not mentioning drugs once and i will be amazed.

― seahorse genius (seahorse genius), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:27 (twenty-one years ago)

there's three too many words in the thread title

― the surface noise (slight return) (electricsound), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:28 (twenty-one years ago)

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/gallery/2002/11/15/MANICS340_.jpg http://www.burning-heart.net/badsd3.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Manics were good back in their punk days. I bought the first couple of 12"es. Loved 'em and still do.

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, the whole "isn't Heroin glamorous" schtick is pretty damn tired.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:48 (twenty-one years ago)

"there's three too many words in the thread title"

thank god schools have ditched corporal punishment. Bimble, in the corner - NOW!

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha HA HA! Have to catch me first!

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:56 (twenty-one years ago)

PERVERTALISM

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 10 September 2004 02:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned can you recommend a cd I can quickly pull from the music library here for the drive to Lancaster to pick up my car? Other than Queens of the Stone Age, I guess.

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Lancaster, PA or Lancaster, UK?

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:04 (twenty-one years ago)

it is an arresting photo (and the "19% off" in the corner is a brilliant touch)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Sparks, The Number One Song In Heaven, Oglio rerelease.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Lancaster, CA. Epicentre of crystal meth production! Probably why my transmission exploded, someone had set up a lab in the engine when we were stopped for dinner.

That reminds me of some song...."desert crystal meth lab"...something...who was it, did that song '93 maybe

Ned, if there's even ONE Sparks disc in there I'll eat my crank pipe.

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Clearly you work for a defective station. (Dead Milkmen's Big Lizard in My Backyard? The Primitives' Pure?)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:19 (twenty-one years ago)

big lizard in my backyard was one of the first tapes i ever bought!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, we just mentioned lizards at the same time without knowing it.

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:26 (twenty-one years ago)

ooh Dead Milkmen. Montreal club on Ave du Parc,forgot the name nineteen-ninety...somethingorother..yikes

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:27 (twenty-one years ago)

club soda?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:28 (twenty-one years ago)

(if so, that's 2 blocks from my house!!)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:28 (twenty-one years ago)

or was, it moved and now the old place is called kola note

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

EXACTEMENT! ah, je me souviens, fuk

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

did you live here?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Thea is short for Theabolique

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:32 (twenty-one years ago)

i was just thinking about the old club soda cuz that's where i saw mercury rev on the see you on the other side tour. it was when i had just moved here and i went by myself, and i remember a really nice walk home in the snow!

― sorry for getting all twee (slutsky), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Next time you're standing in front of the Rialto, look across the street and up and you'll see my old apartement with the long window that's curved on top.

Also lived on Bernard beside that cafe with the pool tables and on Jeanne Mance at Mont Royal. X street on Mont Royal was a club where PJ Harvey played...'93, I guess

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:33 (twenty-one years ago)

romolo! i live on jeanne-mance, like a block away from there

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:35 (twenty-one years ago)

the neighbourhood is very different now (from even 5 years ago)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:35 (twenty-one years ago)

my dreams are still intact, thankfully. unlike my french vocabulary

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:43 (twenty-one years ago)

not dreams, memories. whatever

ok, moving on... from montreal to lancaster.

― Thea (Thea), Friday, 10 September 2004 03:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Barat and the potential consumer enter into a complicit exchange of gazes, from which exchange Doherty, who is (shall we say) very possibly its principal subject, is excluded.

Is there supposed to be some reproachful meta-commentary here on the notion of Doherty as a sacrificial other not quite on "our level", or does the cover only assert that that (to all relevant intents and purposes) is what he actually is?

― Neil Willett (Neil Willett), Friday, 10 September 2004 04:58 (twenty-one years ago)

its not bad, seriously. the rest of the albums artwork is more boring. at least this pic has some sort of story going for it (obviously we all know that story now, too pathetically well).

it wasnt a pose as far as i know, it was just a pic their photographer roger seargant took when he was following them around for a year or so and they thought it summarised the album best so stuck it on the album sleeve. its not heroin chic really, its more like carl, on the left looking panicked and worried for pete on the right, who looks half asleep like theyve just decided to call the ambulance or something. its hardly a defiant, heroin is great kids! pose (or maybe inadvertently, it is). pete looks fucked and pallid and dead, carl looks desperate and panic stricken like he wants someone to get help.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 08:31 (twenty-one years ago)

can u think of one other album cover of a band,
that only has 2 of their members on the front?

i think its a disgrace, and if i was 'the other two'
i'd be fcked off rather royal.

by the way who is the 2nd band pictured on the right upthread?

― piscesboy, Friday, 10 September 2004 09:00 (twenty-one years ago)

by the way who is the 2nd band pictured on the right upthread?

The Birthday Party

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:04 (twenty-one years ago)

if it makes any difference, all the band are inside the booklet and on the back.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:11 (twenty-one years ago)

ok, i cant disagree how its fucked up how the other two arent on the cover.

im sure theres other records where the whole band on the front though (all of the prince and the revolution records come to mind).

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought it was a shit album cover, but then, that's appropriate, isn't it? Reminded me a bit of the first Suede album cover, but then maybe that's wishful thinking.

The chick on the left is kinda cute, though, if I were gonna gay, that would be the way.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Chick? That's a guy.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:28 (twenty-one years ago)

guys who look like chicks in rock should be an ILM thread.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Guy? Oh? Whatever, he's still beautiful. He can paint my toenails any time. I'd just have to put gaffer tape over his mouth and keep him away from my guitars.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:32 (twenty-one years ago)

OK... reading that back, I just realised, yeah, he IS Nicky Wire, then... (sans banana costume)

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Now I'm confused

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Nicky Wire also wants to paint my toenails. But not if he's wearing the banana costume.

(It was a banana costume, wasn't it? My memory is going.)

Post more pictures of the girlyboy, please. It might actually compensate for the damage that his music has caused to my delicate aesthetic sensibilities!

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:36 (twenty-one years ago)

no one could seriously think he was a girl.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:39 (twenty-one years ago)

OTM

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:39 (twenty-one years ago)

What are you talking about? He looks like Chrissy beHynde! He's so PRETTY!!!

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I never understood what people heard in the Libertines. But now I understand. It's not what people *hear* in them, it's what they *see* in them.

That Cabbage Patch Kid On Crack never did anything for me, but that girlyboy with the greasy hair, man, he's fiiiiiiine.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:43 (twenty-one years ago)

as a hetero male who never saw what they looked like for about a year while listening to their first album, i care not how pretty carl barat is.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, I'm sorry, it's just poor taste in your case, then. ;-)

More pictures of the girlyboy, please!

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:51 (twenty-one years ago)

i dont know where to direct you. www.thelibertines.org.uk might be helpful.

i dont get how so many girls love femme-looking boys but far less men love manly-looking girls.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 09:58 (twenty-one years ago)

This is utterly shameful. I can't believe I'm looking. Someone shoot me. Now!

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:00 (twenty-one years ago)

ARGH!!! AARRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

There's freaking MUSIC on that website! Make it stop! Make it stop!

That should be freaking BANNED putting that kind of clatter as an autoplay. I'm happily surfing the web listening to my pleasing dronerock, and then suddenly this FUCKING RACKET LIKE A DRUNK FALLING DOWN A FLIGHT OF STAIRS interferes and there's NOTHING I CAN DO TO STOP IT. I don't care how cute he is, I can't put up with that.

Somebody who doesn't have a soundcard, or maybe even ears, please go and find some photos for me and post them here. K? Thanks. Bye.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:03 (twenty-one years ago)

um, you can press 'stop' on the screen and the music does just that!

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:07 (twenty-one years ago)

No, no, I'm traumatised, my ears, I don't want to have to hear it long enough to find the stop button.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:11 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.nme.com/features/109299.htm
http://www.sanctuaryrecords.de/libertines/photos.htm
http://www.repeatfanzine.co.uk/Images/Review%20images/libertines_cbgbs_1_full.jpg

the first two links include the uncropped shot used on the LP sleeve.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Phew, that's very kind of you! Thank you!

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:14 (twenty-one years ago)

Weird. He didn't used to be that pretty. It's like he got hit by the ugly stick, but in reverse.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha, Kate's perving habits = the "NME" readership's music listening habits! It's uncanny!

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:18 (twenty-one years ago)

No, this is shameful! I utterly HATE AND LOATHE the band and their music. He just looks particularly ... dazed and stupid ... in that photo. I mean, yeah, you could draw conclusions from that. My type = dazed and stupid, NME readership = dazed and stupid, you might have a point there, judge!

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I haven't had this horrible a sense of shame since I started perving over Marty Willson-Piper!

I mean, in certain cases (Julian, for example) the hatred *is* the attraction - I hate his band so much I want to fuck him in a really nasty and degrading way as some kind of sick twisted revenge fantasy.

This is actually "wow, he's pretty" and that's so shameful.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i have yet to really understand the complete contempt and hatred the libertines inspire in people (or ILX people, rather). its sort of like the hatred some (mainly trad-rock listening) fuxors have for the liars and bands like that, but in reverse.

btw, im sure he would really be damaged when you revenge-fuck him. ;)

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Actually, to be honest, I'm totally indifferent to the band's music. There's not even enough to it to actually hate it.

I hate and loathe the publicity machine, and the sort of "old men nostaligising a drug-addled youth that totally damaged them" sort of sick fascination that people I would otherwise want to respect (Alan McGee, Mick Jones, etc.) have for them. It's not just hating the image, even though I *do* hate the image, it's more hating that entire Rock N Roll, Maaaaaaan drug-mythology fetishisation.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:26 (twenty-one years ago)

You're telling me he doesn't look like a GURL here:

http://www.sanctuaryrecords.de/libertines/chatham202L.jpg

(will that even post or is it too big?)

((and why do they always have to have him feeling up Garbage Patch Kid, like, why to kill my homoerotic buzz!))

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:29 (twenty-one years ago)

i think the garbage kid comes as a package deal. they dont come separately.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:32 (twenty-one years ago)

It just isn't fair. I mean, ANYONE ELSE and those poses would be the most homoerotic thing in the world. But he harshes my buzz, man!

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:39 (twenty-one years ago)

seriously, he makes more of a beautiful man than he does an ugly girl.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Honestly! That waist, those mantits! I'm actually in pain looking at that photo. Beauty and the Beast, man.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:45 (twenty-one years ago)

MANTITS?! did you see that docu on CH4 a few weeks ago abuot men with excessive mammary growth? right now theyre reading this post and baulking.

― splooge (thesplooge), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i can't tell who you think the good looking one is, Kate. They look equally bad to me.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:51 (twenty-one years ago)

When did this complication arise? I mean, honestly, I knew he used to be a minger, and here is proof:

http://www.sanctuaryrecords.de/libertines/valenciaL.jpg

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:51 (twenty-one years ago)

There's going to be a follow-up programme about men who crave excessive mammary growth - "Praying (For) Mantits"

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:52 (twenty-one years ago)

x-post to Jed, the attractive one is CLEARLY the one clutching his mantits.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Glen Danzig?

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:57 (twenty-one years ago)

You're right its just that pink top doesnt look too bad in that pic and mantits doesnt look too great in all the other ones.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 10 September 2004 10:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I am not going to respond on this thread any more, because I am clearly going to get a reputation. Any further outbursts will be contained to the ILE "Crush Of Shame" threads. Please tempt me no more with your foul indierock temptresses, their greasy hair or their perfect noses.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Friday, 10 September 2004 11:01 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.