'Gripping' Album Tops Doherty Tabloid Drama

Kate Moss' ex, Pete Doherty, may have a rep as a “tawdry drug monster,” but detractors' opinions are sullying his band's great music, says Uncut, giving 5 of 5 stars to Babyshambles’ new release, Shotter’s Nation. The band's previous effort succeeded on “flinty spectrality,” but this one wins by sobering up: Babyshambles is “frighteningly functional” as Doherty goes to war against mediocrity.

Though confirming the view that every Babyshambles review is a “long-range character assessment” of the tabloid fixture, Drowned in Sound disagrees on Shotter’s merits, calling it “murky” and awarding it 5 of a possible 10. Doherty is certainly capable, but this is a measly effort, “mashed into place by clumsy guitar fingers.” (More music stories.)