Pete Doherty did his best to deglamorize the myth of the poetic, glamorously wasted rock star with boringly bad behavior -- and, even worse, boring music.
Babyshambles' debut,
Down in Albion, was mostly a mess with a few moments of stranded brilliance, while
The Blinding was a little more focused, but still lackluster. At this point, the only really shocking thing
Doherty and the rest of
Babyshambles could do would be to release some consistently good music. Darned if they didn't with
Shotter's Nation, an album that shows that
Babyshambles have learned from their stumbling baby steps. It doesn't outstay its welcome, as there are no detours into pointless reggae, and best of all, the band sounds like it's having fun -- much more fun, in fact, than when
Doherty and crew sounded like they were three sheets to the wind while making
Down in Albion.
Doherty sounds more mischievous than self-destructive on these songs, and he's infinitely more appealing as a cheeky, brazen storyteller than a despondent junkie. "Baddie's Boogie," a sunny, strummy tale of a crumbling marriage, is one of his most sharply written and sung songs since his
Libertines days; on "Deft Left Hand," he rattles off bon mots like "Went from cheery vagabondage to cold-blooded luxury in four years" effortlessly.
The rest of the band, and the rest of
Shotter's Nation, follows
Doherty's clearer-eyed lead. Without a doubt, this is the most produced music of his career: "Carry on Up the Morning" opens with ragged riffs and clamoring drums, but soon resolves itself into something significantly more polished, but the cleaner surroundings suit these songs well. There's just enough grit to bring excitement to roller coaster rockers like "Side of the Road" and "Delivery" (one of
Shotter's Nation's few brooding moments), but not so much that they sound like they've been wallowing in the gutter. The band's more pulled-together sound works even better on the album's flights of fancy.
Doherty indulges his love of cabaret on "There She Goes" and "French Dog Blues" (which was co-written by
Doherty,
Ian Brown, and
Kate Moss), and the results are charming -- a word that didn't apply to him or his music in quite a while. "Unstookie Titled" could even be called sophisticated; its droning guitars and subtle tension and release, not to mention its clever allusion to "Fuck Forever"'s verse melody, moves
Babyshambles' sound forward in a natural but intriguing way. Despite a few songs that lag a bit, this is easily
Babyshambles' best work yet. Maybe that's not setting the bar incredibly high, especially compared to
Doherty's
Libertines work, but it's still a big step in the right direction. A small but very enjoyable triumph,
Shotter's Nation suggests that there is still hope for
Doherty's music to evolve past the live-fast, die-young ideal. ~ Heather Phares