Shock news: he’s not a complete shambles!

GIVEN frontman Pete Doherty’s propensity for pushing the self-destruct button, it will be an achievement of sorts when this debut album from Babyshambles finally makes it into the shops on Monday. Down In Albion has been so overshadowed by Doherty’s drug-taking, brushes with the law and relationship with Kate Moss that even the most ardent fans must have wondered if it would ever appear. Despite ongoing concerns over Pete, the recent signs have been good. When I caught the band in London last month, they went onstage 30 minutes early

and played a disciplined two-hour set.

Six months earlier, they had rolled up

late before interrupting a lethargic set

after an onstage fight between

Doherty and guitarist Patrick Walden.

Down In Albion is still patchy. Its 14

songs often teeter on the brink of

chaos before being roped into shape

by Adam Ficek’s doughty drumming

and former Clash guitarist Mick

Jones’s spirited production. It also follows the pattern of the two albums Doherty (above) made with his previous band, The Libertines, which featured a clutch of fine songs surrounded by filler. Among the high points here are the skewed rockabilly of La Belle Et La Bête (with additional vocals from Moss) and the outstanding Albion, a moving song in which Pete The Poet yearns for a romantic England characterised by ‘gin in teacups and leaves on the lawn’. Less impressive are Pipedown, which sounds like a half-hearted demo, and Eight Dead Boys, so shoddy it should never have made it onto a finished album. With Down In Albion harking back to the dark, edgy post-punk sound once favoured by bands such as The Cure, Babyshambles have the potential to develop into something special. But, as Doherty sings on A’ Rebours, ‘what’s thrilling me is killing me’. One can only hope that even he is beginning to realise the drugs don’t work.