The Libertines - Album Cover analysis

This is the album cover for "The Libertines" album released by The Libertines (strangly). The album was released in 2004 as the second and last album from the band. This album cover pretty much demonstrates them as purely as possible; that was what they was all about.

At first glance we can see 2 men looking pretty wasted showing off their tatoos. The tatoos do actually say "Libertines" and this shot was taking after a drunken night out. The 2 men shown are the two front men of the group; Pete Doherty and Carl Barat. The album is actually based on the relationship that they had which was very much a rollercoaster ride. They were clearly close enough friends to start a band, tour, nd release two albums however after a dispute, Pete broke into Carl's house while on drugs and was charged shortly after pleading guilting in court. Yet here in this album cover they are looking quite friendly. They were renound for the drink and drugs use and here in this image we can see dialated eyes, a ciggerette in one of their hands and a plastic cup (probably full of beer) in the oter hand. This connotes everyting that the band is about, they enjoy the partying, having a good time no matter how dangerous; it really reflects their ruthlessness.

It may have actually been this image that they were putting forward that made them as popular as they are; they weren't following what the industry was controlling everyone else to do, they did their own thing and didn't care about the rest.

However this album cover has been in he firing line of several music critics saying that it is a bad influence on younger generations and not a true portrayal of what rockstars should be like. You would expect that like most bands they would change their cover to please critics, but being The Libertines, they kept it and didn't care about the critics which actually earned them alot of respect from a lot of people but at the same time made them lose the respect of others.

Also the colours are a bit uneasy and it is probably not a natural picture and has more than likel undergone some hue and saturation changes and i believe that this has been done to maybe create the effect of being under the influence of something that effects your perception of colour or vision.