Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

Carl Barât / Carl Barât
"All hail the Moz"

This is not RADIO CLASH, This is not LIBERTINES lite &
it ain't Dirty Pretty Things neither!
What is it then?
It's Morrissey!
Eh?

Yes ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls all hail the Moz; cos for me Carl Barât's self titled debut LP teeters on the brink somewhere between "Kill Uncle" and "Vauxhall & I" - But hey this isn't a criticism, far from it; as far as I'm concerned it's pretty damn good.

OK so there's a deal of rolly rolly, apples and pears, "What Kind of Fool am I" jellied eels down at the old bull and bush Tony Newley going on here on the likes of "Angry Birds" or "Je Regrette, Je Regrette". And a goodly sized dollop of Divine Comedy on "The Fall" applied by the scoop of Neil Hannon himself. And ok so there's a bit of Graham Coxon's former band amid the theatricals of "She's Something"; but really for the most part the spectral hand of Moz hovers over most of what is served up. But like I've already said as far as I'm concerned this Mozerisation of all things Barât is "fair enough"; the jacket to fits - just.

No doubt CB will have his debut compared (by the music press - spit) to his previous Libertines and DPT doings and also measured up against Pedro's next move. So running full tilt into pristine (un) popular song seems like a good move - but does he pull it off? - hummm. There's a few frank one liners like "I m a wretch, I'm a wretch, a tosser at a stretch", and an abundance of REGRETS - oh yes regrets darling - back of hand placed on forehead - REGRETS I've had a few blah blah; and there's some twee sing a long moments too on the likes of "So Long my Lover". So all ist gut ja? Well not all gut, there are a few downers. The horrid intro of "Run with the Boys" being one - what is that brass noise? "Frankly vulgar - like a red pullover" like something spewed up from the early eighties by the Thompson Twins or Howard Jones. YUK! Where was the classically trained Leo Abraham that day?

And there are a couple of missed opportunities. The main one being "Shadows Fall" which wouldn't have been out of place on the mournful laden "Strange Weather" album by Marianne Faithfull (Circa '83). With Carl singing at his highest range how wonderful would it have been to have Marianne Faithful singing this with him? Where was the music network of Leo Abraham that day? Hey Carl, bloody record it again with Marrianne. Oh right, moments gone. Sorry.

So to conclude the Carl Barât debut is a glamorous photograph of an album and not a pencil and ink self portrait splattered with blood but there is enough of substance here to make it worthy of passing over you £8 for.
But is it the start of something new or just a pleasant interlude? And let's not get too excited cos as I've already said the album does teeter on the brink between "Kill Uncle" and "Vauxhall & I". If Barât can meld the subtlety of his debut with the fire and filth the Libs and the DPTs and come up with a batch of songs choc full of English preoccupations, sorrowfulness, spite, humour and boredom then perhaps the next instalment will be more "Queen is Dead" than "Kill Uncle" - maybe he'll need Peter's help for that - maybe he won't. What do I know? You're right, Jack shit!

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