IRT Magazine

Out of the ashes of the fiery Brit-pop troupe—The Libertines—two resilient embers still burn: Dirty Pretty Things and Babyshambles. Babyshambles makes the more compelling story, as Pete Doherty makes his triumphant return to music after his grapple with heroin and crack cocaine addiction, which originally caused The Libertines to disband. Seemingly unfettered, though, the Babyshambles debut begins with a pick strut which is soon coupled with a seductive bassline as Doherty prophesies broodingly, “I tell you a story but you won’t listen, it’s about two nightmares steeped in tradition.” With allusions to William Blake’s portrait of tortured lovers in the album title, La Belle Et La Bete (The Beautiful and the Foolish) dances fancifully on the stage of literary precedent. A’Rebours continues with the French theme as well as the preoccupation with literature—A’Rebours (Against the Grain) being the turbulent, landmark novel by J.K. Huysmans. The song, meanwhile, tickles the listener’s aural nerves with another alluring bass hook while articulate guitar work shimmies in charged bridges. By the time the album’s best song, Fuck Forever, ushers in at song three, a listener expects the album to achieve the brilliant consistency of a Clash record. Doherty even alludes to the epic song from London Calling, “So what’s the use between death and glory?” By the sixth song, 8 Dead Boys, the record achieves great reliability, but that regularity costs the group their listeners’ interest. The LP wanes on the extraneous track, In Love with a Feeling, but is picked up by Pipedown. They have you begging for a change of pace by the time Sticks and Stones and Pentonville bring in a little reggae. But the silly, overly stated, almost laughable refrains and contrived reggae guitar shakes have you clawing at your ears. The album drifts off from there, with two obligatory songs, Albion and What Katy Did Next dedicated respectively to Blake’s work Visions of the Daughters of Albion and Doherty’s ravishing temptress, Kate Moss. On the whole, the record comes as a remarkably average album from a new band you’ll wanna keep an eye on. –Michael Montesano

Last Modified : November 20th, 2006
Filed under : reviews, rock
Navigate : Previous post / Next post