Rolling Stone (12/25/03, p.108) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2003" - "...The thrill is hearing the Libertines try--not too hard--to keep it together..."

Rolling Stone (p.79) - 3 1/2 stars out of 5 - "[N]o band in recent history has better captured the vertiginous experience of falling apart and loving it."

Rolling Stone (p.146) - Included in Rolling Stone's Top 50 Records Of 2004 - "[T]he Libs still sound like a gloriously combustible rock & roll mess..."

Spin (5/03, p.109) - "...This is music to play in dark, velvety, womblike bars; this is music to play while buying cigarettes....If the Libertines represent the first wave of well-Stroked clone bands, we are optimistic..." - Grade: A

Spin (p.115) - "[A] dark, tense record, but one still crackling with life." - Grade: A-

Spin (p.64) - Ranked #30 in Spin's "40 Best Albums of the Year" - "Barat concludes this beautiful train wreck with a warm-hearted yet cold-eyed three-song intervention..."

Q (11/03, p.136) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...This lot splutter like unsafe fireworks. They could and should be huge..."

Q (p.108) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[B]rimming with character, easily surpassing their debut, its energy level like a battery charge."

Uncut (p.128) - "[L]ike The Clash's LONDON CALLING before it, repeat listenings reveal an endless succession of gorgeous hooks, spindly solos and tunes to hum forever."

Uncut (p.94) - 5 stars out of 5 - "If rock 'n' roll is all about freedom and the consequences that come with that, there's never been a better handbook."

Uncut (p.74) - Ranked #22 in Uncut's "Best New Albums of 2004" - "[Their] punk discharges on love, drugs and mutual loathing sound beautifully, if brutally, honest."

Magnet (p.114) - "[T]he catchy THE LIBERTINES mostly proves the Brits have always taken their pop much more seriously than we ever have."

CMJ (p.8) - "At their best, the Libertines are a band worthy of the overseas claims that they're the next Kinks or Jam."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.60) - Ranked #57 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "The Libertines slap you in the chops like a Francis Bacon painting."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.94) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[A]n extraordinary, challenging second LP, suffused with tenderness and anger..."