The Libertines drummer, Gary Powell has confirmed that the band has finished recording the follow-up to 2015’s Anthems For A Doomed Youth.
Speaking in an interview with Oliver Spencer, the drummer detailed some of the band’s process in recording the album and exactly when it should be available.
In the interview he said: “We’ve just recorded our latest album. I think we do one every 10 years or so. Yes. So expect the next one to come from the grave! The album comes out in January [2024].”
The timeline adds up considering it was reported that the band was recording in Jamaica some time last year (2022). In an interview, guitarist Pete Doherty said: “We have just been in Jamaica, me and Carl, and we’ve got a new album on the way.”
Drummer Powell has previously spoken a lot about the next Libertines album, as he has said: “The good thing is everybody’s been writing. Obviously, we’re not going to try and reinvent the wheel… but I think we can push the boat out a little more while still bringing something that has the same emotional integrity and dynamism that the audience craves when they come to a Libertines show.”
About the next album, Doherty during a performance at Glastonbury told the crowd: “There are lots of things on the table – some really good, strong and melodic rock’n’roll songs.”
Frontman Carl Barat has also previously spoken about the next album, as he said: “Sonically, we want to do something we haven’t done before… I think we’ll be looking to do something with a different energy than before. But we’re not at that stage yet.”
The band started work on the new album in 2019, as the band expressed interest in taking the album into many different musical directions with Pete Doherty likening the album’s potential sonic diversity to Sardinstra by The Clash – he said: “Carl wants to do a ‘Sandinista’ thing with all these mad ideas that we’ve got, so we’ll have all these freestyle things and folky things, then there’s the more traditional Doherty/Barat songs,”
One new song has been detailed by the band; a track named ‘Shiver’ which the band seem particularly fond of. About the song, Doherty said the track has “got a real sentimental hark back”, which must mean a stylistic return to old-school Libertines tracks. Co-frontman Barat was in agreement, claiming “Yeah, ‘Shiver’’s great. I was listening to that last night, actually.”