Down in Albion

1	La Belle et La Bęte 5:05
2	Fuck Forever 4:37
3	A'rebours 3:23
4	The 32nd of December 3:08
5	Pipedown 2:35
6	Sticks and Stones 4:51
7	Killamangiro 3:13
8	8 Dead Boys 4:16
9	In Love with a Feeling 2:51
10	Pentonville 3:49
11	What Katy Did Next 3:07
12	Albion 5:24
13	Back from the Dead 2:52
14	Loyalty Song 3:32
15	Up the Morning 5:43
16	Merry Go Round 5:22

Barnes & Noble

It's not exactly promising when a band is better known for the tabloid inches filled by its frontman than for its musical output. But in the case of Babyshambles, the London rock outfit led by onetime Libertines frontman Pete Doherty, the music matches the excitement of breathless headlines of drug abuse and run-ins with the law. (Doherty has racked up drug charges, and his ex-girlfriend, supermodel Kate Moss, was filmed allegedly using cocaine at a Babyshambles recording session.) As a frontman, Doherty should take an Oscar for his role as the degenerate genius, slurring his eyebrow-raising lyrics over glorious rock melodies that chime like the Kinks ("The 32nd of December") and the Smiths ("A'rebours") and sear like the Pistols and the Clash. In fact, Mick Jones, who produced the Libertines' U.K. chart-topping debut, returns for Down in Albion, corralling the band's, er, shambolic tendencies on its best cuts. The blistering "F**k Forever" joins the Pixies' addled braininess with the Sex Pistols' swagger, and the whoa-whoa-spiked "Killamangiro" (a "giro" is an unemployment check) belongs on the same playlist as the Jam's "Down at the Tube Station at Midnight" and the Clash's "Spanish Bombs." Elsewhere, Doherty bares his soul on the winsome "Albion" and opener ''La Belle et la Bęte'' ("'It's a story of a coked-up pansy / Who spends his nights in flights of fancy," rattles Doherty, later supported by Moss cooing, "Is she more beautiful than me?") and reveals a Clash-like affinity for reggae on "Sticks and Stones" and "Pentonville" (so named for a prison where he and guest singer the General purportedly served time). Not every tune strikes gold -- there's a killer song buried in the muck of "8 Dead Boys" -- yet fans of Doherty's musical, literary, and debauched antecedents, a line including Shane MacGowan, Johnny Thunders, Sid Vicious, the Replacements, and Ray Davies, will quickly fall under Babyshambles' spell. Lydia Vanderloo

All Music Guide

Throughout his career, Pete Doherty has always been remarkably honest about drawing inspiration from his self-destruction. During his time with the Libertines, his debauchery underscored the band's explosive, teetering-on-the-edge-of-chaos chemistry. But with his post-Libertines group Babyshambles (again, the name is up-front about Doherty's modus operandi), he doesn't just teeter, he jumps right over the edge, as evidenced by the band's debut album, Down in Albion, which is also heavily inspired by Doherty's drug use and troubles with the law. Most of the album's songs are barely beyond the sketch level; some of them, like "A'Rebours" and "32nd of December" are like ragged little urchins, starved of the care and focus it would take to flesh out their promising bones. Even within the album's murkiness, however, hints of the promise and intermittent brilliance Doherty had in the Libertines can still be heard. Interestingly, the most theatrical tracks on Down in Albion have the most clarity. "La Belle et la Bęte," a duet between Doherty and his infamous ex, Kate Moss, recasts the turmoil of their life together as meta-cabaret; "What Katy Did Next" brings back the character of his Libertines songs for a tongue-in-cheek cautionary tale (you can practically see Doherty's finger waggling as he sings, "If you play with fire, you will get burned"). Meanwhile, "Fuck Forever"'s choruses are rousing enough that you can almost buy into the nihilistic, romantic notion of Doherty alternately escaping and diving into his pain, and "Loyalty Song" is so good that it sounds like it was channeled from some other album. Heather Phares