The fact that Dirty Pretty Things frontman Carl Barat has been recently talking up a Libertines reunion - right around the release of his current band's second album, in fact - speaks louder than any review could. Since the demise of his vehicle to fame and fortune, the singer/guitarist has been constantly chasing the coat-tails of Pete Doherty, regardless of the latter's coherence or talent.
But then, that's Dirty Pretty Things all over. Their 2006 debut Waterloo to Anywhere was an album that lamented the 'good ol' days of yore', and 'Romance at Short Notice' is no different. Barat has developed little as a songwriter: thematically, he's seemingly incapable of a varied palate, and is still insistently hawking the same sub-Libertines babble - i.e. lyrics which may trip soundly off the tongue, but make little sense ("Parafin, Anadin, sick as disguise / So we take our snappy patterns, and use them as knives").
There's little in the way of musical growth here either, although it's certainly not as bad as their debut. Proceedings are even kicked off promisingly with Buzzards and Crows, a theatrical rock romp, before descending into the scratchy guitar riff/jaunty chorus/drawling vocals formula that's as tiresome as it is hackneyed. Acoustic-led ballads Come Closer and Faultlines are especially drab, although reparations are temporarily made with the grinding, grumbling bounce of Kicks or Consumption - even if it does sound like Klaxons without the synths.
Overall, though, Romance at Short Notice serves no purpose other than to exhibit Dirty Pretty Things as the unequivocally average band that they are. Libertines reunion? Sounds better with every listen.
