With their new album, The Libertines have topped the UK Albums Charts for the first time in over two decades.
It comes after the indie giants shared their latest LP, ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’, at the start of the month. It marked the fourth studio LP from Pete Doherty, Carl Barât, John Hassall and Gary Powell, and first since 2015’s ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’.
Now, it has been confirmed by the Official Charts that the band have locked in the Number One spot with the new release – making it the first time they have topped the album charts in two decades.
The band’s first and only time reaching peak position until now was back in 2004, when they shared their now-iconic eponymous album ‘The Libertines’.
“We are all of us in the gutter, but today we’re looking at the stars! Thanks for the love. We need it,” the band said of the milestone.
News that the band were heading for the top spot arrived earlier this week, and came after the band unveiled their best dance moves on TikTok to help with the push.
In a new spoof social media video, Doherty told Barât: “Of course I want to get a Number One. It’s not like there’s a set formula for it.” Barât replies that he can’t just get the Number One “because you think you deserve one,” before the pair read over suggestions from their label after determining that “selling a lot of records” is not a viable option.
Last week’s record-breaking chart-topper ‘Cowboy Carter’ – which saw Beyoncé become the first black artist ever to claim Number One on the Official Albums Chart with a country LP – is currently at Number Two on the charts, followed by Earlestown band The K’s with their debut ‘I Wonder If The World Knows?’.
“We want to say thank you for everything. Not just for this week, thank you for everything since we started. Thank you for allowing us to be in this position, to even be mentioned in these conversations and to be battling for the top of the charts,” The K’s said in a new comment. “We can’t wait to celebrate with you all over the next couple of weeks on tour, we love you. It’s because of the fans that we’re here doing it!”
‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ is also this week’s biggest release on vinyl, topping the Official Vinyl Albums Chart, and becoming thee most purchased in UK independent record shops over the past seven days. It is currently sitting at Number One on the Official Record Store Chart.
Reviewing ‘…Eastern Esplanade’, NME gave the album a four-star rating and wrote that “the sense of listening in on a band teetering on the precipice of disaster is gone, replaced by a more stable and necessarily safer version of The Libertines”.
It went on: “The results may be patchy, but this is not, and could not be, an album that rides the same intoxicating high as ‘Up the Bracket’. What they have done, though, is find their voice again, and, for the first time in over 20 years, The Libertines feel like a band with a viable future.”
Ahead of its release, The Libertines spoke to NME in October about the album, with Carl Barât explaining that the band were all “facing in the same direction” for this record.
“There’s been a lot of focus and everyone’s been working on finding their own personal place in the world as well. Everyone has very different lives and we managed to find something to unite over,” he said.
To celebrate the release, the indie giants recently added some new dates to their 2024 UK and Ireland headline tour – find all the details here.