Despite the album's lack of focus, the majority of Romance at Short Notice's songs are good in their own right. From song to song, Dirty Pretty Things jerk their listeners from one mood and sound to another, never quite finding a thread to tie it all together. It's admirable that Barat and crew want to explore as many approaches as possible, and just as admirable that Barat shares the singing and writing duties with bandmates Anthony Rossamundo and Didz Hammond (whose delicate ballad "The North" is a highlight), but this doesn't give Romance at Short Notice much cohesion. Then the band takes an abrupt left turn into winsome, jangly pop with "Plastic Hearts," and Romance at Short Notice never quite regains its momentum. ![]() The album crashes in on "Buzzards and Crows," a brooding manifesto against "a scene self-obsessed" embellished with carnivalesque organs, a flat-lining heart monitor, and what sounds like an angry mob it's followed by "Hippy's Son," where Barat tears down any leftover traces of '60s peace and love with snarling invective and guitars. Romance at Short Notice isn't just much more polished than the band's scrappy debut, it's also much more eclectic - to a fault. For most of Romance at Short Notice, Carl Barat and the rest of Dirty Pretty Things seem determined to move as far past the lingering ghosts of the Libertines and their debut album, Waterloo to Anywhere, as possible.
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