In October, the Libertines announced All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade, their first new album in nine years. They shared the lead single “Run, Run, Run,” and today they’re releasing “Night Of The Hunter” with a video directed by Alex Brown.

About the song, Peter Doherty shared a statement:

We got the title from Charles Laughton’s directorial debut Night Of The Hunter starring Robert Mitchum as a preacher with ‘LOVE’ and ‘HATE’ tattooed on his knuckles. The song’s about not staying ahead of the law. This fella doesn’t really know why his mate’s dead, but he’s got a feeling his mate had it coming to him. He fucked with the wrong people, and he stole something he shouldn’t have, and he got stabbed. So, he’s angry and hurt and he has to go and get revenge, so he does and that’s it for him, basically. Once he has stabbed the lad who stabbed his mate, that’s it for him. He lashed out in revenge and he knows they’re coming to get him and he’s not even going to try and run because he knows he’ll just be running forever.

Carl Barât added:

I started writing a riff and it ended up sounding a bit like Swan Lake, and everyone went, “Yeah!” Then we got Peter’s theremin player in which took about a day to get in tune, then he played that sequence and it worked beautifully.

The idea of getting carted off for ten years is horrendous… the condemned man dies 1000 times.

Watch director Alexander Brown’s video for “Night Of The Hunter” below.

In preparation for the new album, Doherty recently talked with Louis Theroux for BBC and touched on his health. “You are looking at a very sick man,” he said. “I’ve battered it, haven’t I? I’ve fucking caned it.”

 

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All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade is out 3/8 on Casablanca/Republic.