Up the Bracket
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- See Up the Bracket (song) for the song.
| Up the Bracket | |||||
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| Studio album by The Libertines | |||||
| Released | 14 October 2002 | ||||
| Recorded | August 2002 | ||||
| Genre | Punk rock Indie rock |
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| Length | 39:28 (sans track 14) | ||||
| Label | Rough Trade | ||||
| Producer | Mick Jones | ||||
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| The Libertines chronology | |||||
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| Pete Doherty chronology | |||||
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Up the Bracket is the debut album from British band The Libertines, released on 14 October 2002, reaching #35 in the UK Albums chart.
The album was re-released on 8 September 2003 with an additional track, "What a Waster" and DVD featuring the promotional videos for the singles: "Up the Bracket", "Time for Heroes" and "I Get Along".
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[edit] Name
The title "Up The Bracket" alludes to the phrase used by British comedian Tony Hancock in Hancock's Half Hour, a slang term meaning a punch in the throat. Hancock is also referenced in the opening track, "Vertigo" - "lead pipes, your fortune's made", being a line from the Half Hour episode 'The Poetry Society'. Pete Doherty is known to be a life-long fan of Hancock and a member of the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society, as well as featuring on a BBC documentary about him.[1]
[edit] Track listing
All songs were written by Peter Doherty and Carl Barât.
- "Vertigo" – 2:37
- "Death on the Stairs" – 3:24
- "Horrorshow" – 2:34
- "Time for Heroes" – 2:40
- "Boys in the Band" – 3:42
- "Radio America" – 3:44
- "Up the Bracket" – 2:40
- "Tell the King" – 3:22
- "The Boy Looked at Johnny" – 2:38
- "Begging" – 3:20
- "The Good Old Days" – 2:59
- "I Get Along" – 2:51
- "What a Waster" – 2:57
- "Mockingbird" / "Mayday"
"What a Waster" and "Mockingbird" are extra tracks on the US and Japanese releases.
"What a Waster" is an extra track on the UK re-release.
"Mayday" is an additional extra track on the Australian release, along with "What a Waster".
[edit] Singles
[edit] Press quotes
"Up the Bracket is the assured debut of the most debauched newcomers on the rock scene for some time: the Libertines." – BBC
"...you'll be hard-pushed to find a more pulsating debut by a Brit guitar band all year." - Manchester Online
"Finally we have a bona fide, modern punk band that actually made it out of high school; a band who've got the spirit and the balls, whose lyrical repertoire extends far beyond the naïve teenage escapades of their love-struck American counterparts." - designerpunk.com
"Not since the Clash has a band evoked so precisely the grime and thrill of young London." - Blender Magazine
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The Libertines' breakthrough was the start of a revival for the British rock scene, with many bands including Razorlight, The Paddingtons, Arctic Monkeys, The View, The Kooks and many others influenced by the album.
- The title of track 9, "The Boy Looked at Johnny", is taken from a book by Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons about the death of rock music (it was written in the late 1970s and is famously over-the-top). The book in turn took its name from the lyrics of Patti Smith's classic song-suite "Land", from the album Horses. The song is commonly thought to be about Johnny Borrell, frontman of Razorlight and former Libertines bassist.
- The track, What a Waster was originally not included on the album, but later turned up on a re-release along with the band's early videos. What a Waster was also used in the film, The Football Factory. The film was about a promising young man who is part of a football firm, and is having doubts about the effect it is having on his life.
- Horrorshow may take its name from the film A Clockwork Orange. The song was the subject of supposed legal action early in the band's career, as the first line ("I've been following, following my minds instructions on how to slowly, sharply, screw myself to death") was written on a note to Pete Doherty by his then girlfriend Francesca - who was not given a writing credit. However, it is unknown if anything ever came of the supposed lawsuit. A video of Horrorshow featuring Pete and Carl in graveyard was recorded sometime in 2001, although this has never seen the light of day.
- Radio America had been around since the band's early days. There is another recording of the song taken from a rehearsal before the band signed to Rough Trade Records. The song arrangement is slightly different on this compared to the version recorded for the album. Incidentally, it was said at the time of recording Radio America properly, that the band rented antique guitars from a pawn shop for 24 hours so that they could get an authentic 'old' sound.
- The track, Time for Heroes was used on the film, American Pie: The Wedding.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Doherty, Jacqueline. "Pete Doherty's mum reveals her son's softer side", Daily Mail, 27 August 2006. Retrieved on 2006-08-29.
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