THE LIBERTINES: Anthems For Doomed Youth | Album Review

So here we are. 11 years after their last album, The Libertines return with 12 songs recorded in Thailand following Pete Doherty’s latest period of rehab. On paper that doesn’t sound like the most promising of circumstances, but the isolation – and the steady hand of pop producer Jake Gosling (One Direction, Ed Sheeran) – seems to have served them well.

Gosling has polished up the band's signature ramshackle sound – but not too much – while there's maturity and no little humility in the songwriting, too. After all, they're not early-20s oiks any more, and Pete and Carl's lyrics bear the scars of booze and drugs (Gunga Din, Iceman), celebrity (Fame And Fortune) and, on the title track, their own turbulent relationship. The comeback may have been inevitable; its success, less so. On balance, they've pulled it off.