No, don't worry, Carl Barat isn't tired of England. The man who, together with some other bloke you may have heard of, popularised talk of Albion and various other romantic notions of old Blighty has chosen a familiar topic with which to make his return.
Musically though, the band sound a shadow of their former selves. Tired Of England just sounds lacklustre and listless, with none of the fizzling energy we've come to expect from Barat's work in the past. Even those lyrics are pretty second rate - "we'll never be tired of London, from Clerkenwell into the city, the state of the roofs is a pity though" could well be a contender for worst line of the year.
At a time when the state of the country is, to all but the most rose-tinted, pretty damn depressing, a love letter to Albion sounds trite and dated. The rest of the forthcoming album Romance At Short Notice had better be a massive improvement on this, otherwise Dirty Pretty Things will be in for a rough 2008.
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