Dirty Pretty ThingsTitle: Waterloo to AnywhereLabel: Mercury RecordsGenre: RockReleased: June 2006Rating: * * * *

With the disintegration of the troubled Libertines in late 2004, several of the former band members went on to hopefully bigger and better things and formed a new band, tastefully called Dirty Pretty Things. Fronted by ex-Libertine Carl Barat, the Things delivered their debut album, 11 world-weary tracks full of heartbreak, ambiguously titled Waterloo to Anywhere, earlier this year. Few times has heartbreak sounded this good, though. Everyone loves an English boy, and Barat aptly fills the role of the opinionated frontman, delivering stinging one-liners such as “There’s really not that much of me for Jesus left to save” and “No one gives a f**k about the values I would die for” with a thick accent and sense of frustration, a sentiment echoed throughout the record. With three of the four members ex-Libertines, the same swagger that once was synonymous with the sound of their former band has returned with a vengeance in Waterloo to Anywhere. Straight up rock and roll, with distorted guitars and catchy choruses, fills the album, all the while not becoming too repetitive. With the quality of the Dirty Pretty Thing’s debut, one is left to wonder if the implosion of the Libertines was such a bad thing after all. Recommended.