Babyshambles - 'You Talk'
The trouble with Babyshambles, and Pete Doherty in particular, is that the insane press coverage he's received over the last few years has set a bar of expectation for his music at two very different levels (that'll be two bars then). On the one hand, people are making claims of genius on his behalf, and he did go on Jonathan Ross and express a wish that people would note how good he is at writing lyrics. On the other, the fact that he's upright, not in prison, and making music which sounds OK, is seen as being something worthy of celebration.
Which, if you think about it, is a frustrating state of affairs for everyone. From Pete's point of view, nothing he can do now will match up to the reputation he garnered while he was in the Libertines. You'll note I said the reputation of the Libertines, rather than the actual music of the Libertines. That's because the people who love that band have ensured that their 'legacy' has become 'legendary' rather than rooted in what the songs are actually like, and therefore, no matter how good the old tunes are, the legend of their goodness overshadows everything.
All of which means there will always be this faint air of disappointment around Babyshambles releases, because they are not Libertines releases.
On the other hand, this air of disappointment didn't come from nowhere, and a good portion of the Babyshambles songbook has been poorly-performed, poorly-sung, poorly-written and poorly-thought out, from a man who has spent most of the time he was making this music being very poorly indeed. This is where the lower bar comes from, people are just pleased that he's writing songs that he can stand to listen to long enough to finish recording them, which has not always been the case.
As for Pete's much-quoted "Oh look, there's that really talented lyricist" ambition, the problem is he IS talented, but he hides this talent VERY VERY WELL. Pete's magpie tendancy to string wartime slang expressions next to Byronic poetry-speak (to prove he's a poet, you see) doesn't actually constitute good writing, not really.
And he's developed that Morrissey thing where the songs from his first band were written about - and to - people like him, in a gesture of solidarity between singer and audience. Whereas almost all of the songs released after the first band's demise are just about him, stuff everyone else.
So - finally - to 'You Talk'. It won't change people's perceptions of Pete in any way whatsoever. It's a decent, dynamic beat-group rave-up, with handclaps, in-tune guitars, half-asleep singing, spit, polish, the works (Sonic Slang are calling it , and they're right).
Sadly, it is also hamstrung by a self-pitying lyric, hidden behind some half-hearted finger-pointing...into a mirror. We might as well not be here, cos this is all about Pete giving Pete a really good talking to, while he watches.
BUT, there's a really intruiging last line which almost vaults the entire song over that top bar.
"Bevan, he drops stones from heaven. L.O.R.D. forever" - Which is an altered quote from the book of Joshua, replacing God with the man who founded the NHS, and ending with graffiti-speak which puts the God back in. I've no idea why it's there - which is great - or what it means, but what I do know is it's a literary car-crash of juxtapositions worthy of TS Elliot, and is definitely something you wouldn't get from the View.
So, classic Babyshambles then. Flashes of brilliance reflecting across the surface of a drab ocean.
Or to put it another way - "oh look, there's that (almost) perpetually under-par lyricist"
Download: Out now
CD Released: December 3rd
(Fraser McAlpine)
Comments
Call me musically ignorant if you like, but I completely fail to see how Doherty is a genius, in any kind of sense; in fact I suspect that infuriating little hat that he insists on wearing could do a lot better.
To my mind the only real talent he seems to have is to make every song he write sound exactly the same as the one before (and he had the b****y cheek to call Muse mediocre. Go figure!)
Also, given that he is probably quite rich by now you'd think he would buy some Clearasil, that man has a face like a relief map of Iraq! Eeeww!
aaaaahhh but heroin's so much better at making front page news than Clearasil
this is a man who's got his priorities right
Boring as hell.
Pete Doherty can't sing either.
its nice to see a balanced view of pete instead of the usual, oh he's just a shitty crack addict that cant sing.
you have obviosly taken the time to actually listen to some of his stuff which is good.
i will say however that you seem to miss the point of his music, the fact that it isnt the usual mainstreem stuff and lacks those happy bouncy hook lines which we see so very often,
in fact the point of his music is much more simple that people realise, it is poetry with a tune behind it, and it is mostly musing aloud, his brilliance is in the fact that he bears his soul to the audience, his soul isnt perfect and he shows this in his songs, who else would release the version of the song that they got wrong and missed half of it out? no-one thats who.
if listening to someone bear their soul isnt something you enjoy then you wont like his music and thats why so many people slate him, and why so many defend him so ferouciously as to make him seem legendary.
all people need to do is listen to his music for the first time before they make their mind up about him, and if anyone else tells me their sick of hearing about him in tabloids then STOP BUYING THEM OR JUST DONT READ THE ARTICLE
use your nogging people