Listen to The Libertines’ new single ‘Night Of The Hunter’

The ballad has been called "a Shakespearean tale of blood and revenge"

The Libertines have shared a new single called ‘Night Of The Hunter’ – you can listen to it below.

The song is the second preview of the band’s upcoming fourth album ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’, following on from ‘Run, Run, Run’. It is described as “a Shakespearean tale of blood and revenge”.

• READ MORE: The Libertines talk being clean and connected: “We just want to write beautiful songs in the moment”

“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,” explained Pete Doherty in a statement.

“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.”

He continued: “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 10 years is horrendous… the condemned man dies 1000 times.”

‘Night Of The Hunter’ arrives with an official music video, which was directed by Alex Brown (La Roux, James Blake) and shot in Cliftonville, Margate, and at The Libertines’ hotel The Albion Rooms. The visuals serve as the second part in a series of Margate-themed clips, picking up where the ‘Run, Run, Run’ video left off. Tune in above.

Following on from 2015’s ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’, the group’s next record ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ is due for release on March 8, 2024. You can pre-order/pre-save it here.

Speaking to NME about the album in October, Doherty explained: “It’s probably more eclectic than we would have hoped for or would have done if we’d just done it by ourselves. The geezer who produced it – Dimitri Tikovoï – we gave him quite free reign.”

He added: “All we want to do is write beautiful songs. That’s what we’ve always wanted to do, but we got distracted – mostly by ourselves. On this occasion, we followed the pattern of writing songs that we believe in but there was nothing else to say; no fanfare, no cacophony. This is the album we’re proud of.”

Watch the video interview with NME in full above.

The Libertines are set to embark on an intimate UK headline tour next month, including dates in Liverpool, Derby, Southampton and Leeds. See the full schedule and find any remaining tickets here.

In other news, Doherty recently said he is “a very sick man” and that “death is lurking” during an interview with Louis Theroux. The singer-songwriter opened up about how years of drug and alcohol abuse had impacted his health on the BBC series Louis Theroux Interviews.

“I’ve battered it, haven’t I? I’ve fucking caned it,” he told the documentarian.