The Libertines are back with their first album in over eight years. All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade follows the influential British band’s 2015 reunion album, Anthems for Doomed Youth. Listen to its first single, “Run, Run, Run,” below.
All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade is out March 8 (via Casablanca/Republic). Frontmen Pete Doherty and Carl Barât began work on the album in Jamaica last fall. They convened this February with bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell (both of whom have songwriting credits) at the band’s Albion Rooms in Margate, England, where they recorded the album with producer Dimitri Tikovoï.
Of “Run, Run, Run,” Barât said in press materials, “It’s about being trapped, and trying to escape your dismal life, a bit like the man in [Charles] Bukowski’s Post Office. The worst thing for the Libertines would be to get stuck in a ‘Run-run-run’ rut, constantly trying to relive our past.” He added, “Our first record was born out of panic, and disbelief that we were actually allowed to be in a studio; the second was born of total strife and misery; the third was born of complexity; this one feels like we were all actually in the same place, at the same speed, and we really connected.”
Doherty added, “I feel like we’ve completed a cycle of some kind as a band, and finally now we can add these songs to the set list, because we’ve got some bangers in there. Now we’ve opened the hotel and used the studio ourselves and it’s all worked out—more Libertines records? I should hope so!”
The album is named for both the Erich Maria Remarque novel and the Albion Rooms’ street address. Last year, the band reissued its classic debut, Up the Bracket, for its 20th anniversary.
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