Note: this is the debut album by Carl Barat & The Jackals.

If you're after Carl Barat & The Jackass, you'll have to wait until The Libertines headline T in the Park this summer.

Let It Reign, unfortunately, is the sound of a man marking time with some pick-up musicians recruited from a Facebook ad until the band that pays the bills gets their act together. It's meat-and-potatoes stuff compared to his self-titled solo album or even Dirty Pretty Things' output.

It gets off to an uninspiring start with Glory Days, as blatant a Clash cast-off as ever there was (Barat doesn't blush when slipping the words "last gang in town" into the lyrics), then follows up with Victory Gin and Summer In The Trenches, both of which basically parody his better Libertines self with more rough-edged rock guitar work.

The best we can manage is to indulge Barat for the time being, aware that he's only keeping his hand in until he knocks heads with Pete Doherty again. But with hundreds of Libertines clone bands out there already, it seems ridiculous that Carl Barat should provide us with another.

Alan Morrison