Babyshambles - Shotters Nation

Pete Doherty is many different things to different people; musician, junkie and to some genius. Shotter's Nation has led me to think of him as a kind of musical archeologist sifting through the topsoil of modern indie and digging deeper into the veins of music that can be carbon dated to the sixties and seventies, what some might term a golden age of British music. Doherty, and Babyshambles, appear to have taken the raw core of various bands dotted throughout the strata of rock history and melded them to form a sometimes anarchic, sometimes brilliant and sometimes incredibly dull alloy of the last thirty years or so of this island's musical heritage.

Throughout Shotter' Nation there are clear nods (or direct lifts - the type of which not seen with such a lack of shame since... well since Therapy?'s shameless...) to the Kinks. A few basslines that could claim to be 'influenced' by The Cure and I don't know why but it strikes me there is a vauge undercurrent of the Manic Street Preachers somewhere in there as well.

Shotter's Nation is a fairly solid indie record that doubles as a 'cod history' lesson in British musical heritage. There's not much on it that will reverse anyones prejudices about Doherty, Babyshambles or the various permutations of the NME sponsored music scene but its at worst a passable record and at best probably a contender for classic indie album status (although thats maybe more to do with the associated scandal linked to the band then anything else - afterall everyone loves a rock star and preferably a dead one). That said thus far its only the single Delivery, Crumb Begging Baghead, Baddie's Boogie and French Dog Blues that seem to stand out from the rest of the album, the rest are somewhat bland indie by numbers and not really far above the standard of a hundred indie pub bands you can suffer hearing by walking into any number of Manchester bars.


Shotter's Nation is available now.