After Dirty Pretty Things disbanded in late 2008, Carl Barat embarked on several projects, including the book Threepenny Memoir: The Lives of a Libertine and a stint in theater, both of which left their mark on his self-titled solo debut. Like his former bandmate Pete Doherty and the Last Shadow Puppets, Barat trades Paul Weller and Joe Strummer for Scott Walker, Kurt Weill, and Jacques Brel as his inspirations. It’s also a tried and true move for a rocker to show another side with an ambitious solo album filled with elaborate arrangements, and Carl Barat is no exception. Barat is still a huge romantic, but these slight songs lack the substance to support the grandiose treatments they get. “What Have I Done” is a love song that would be winsome if it wasn’t drowning in treacly strings and backing vocals, and though “She’s Something” starts off with simple acoustic strumming, it isn’t long before it’s overwhelmed too. This indulgence runs through nearly every track, whether it’s “The Magus”’ stiff cabaret or “Shadows Fall”’s lax, late-night groove. When Barat returns to his rock roots, the results are downright campy: the cleaned-up riffs and big brass on “Run With the Boys” makes the song sound like it’s from Barat! The Musical, and “Death Fires Burn at Night”’s industrial rock differs so much from what came before it that it sounds like it’s from a different album. Yet Carl Barat's most memorable moments, for better or worse, are its most flamboyant. “Je Regrette Je Regrette” adds more charm to Barat’s cabaret; “Carve My Name” exudes widescreen melodrama with lyrics like “Take away the poet’s pen/I’ll never speak of love again”; and “The Fall”'s toy pianos, strings, wilting roses, and windswept kisses are so over the top that they’re kind of brave. Barat has the talent to take his music in a different direction than what he did with Dirty Pretty Things and the Libertines, but he’s in way over his head here; that Carl Barat comes off as a pale imitation of what some of his contemporaries and former bandmates are doing just adds insult to injury.
© Heather Phares /TiVo