Babyshambles (Peter Doherty): Down in Albion (Rough Trade, 2005)

For whatever reason, it took me seventeen years to own the Babyshambles Down in Albion album. When it was released, I heard it on the Internet but never got around to obtaining this beast of a record. By no means am I a Peter Doherty expert, who is the primary singer/songwriter for Babyshambles, and came to be through the band The Libertines. Still, I was interested in how The Libertines or their management conveyed the relationship between Doherty and his creative equal, Carl Barât. If one reads the English music weeklies during the 1990s, a big part of the entertainment was keeping track of Barât and Doherty through their up-and-down relationship. One thing is for sure whenever they were photographed together; it was genuinely erotic. More than Morrissey/Marr or the classic Jagger/Richard. Also, the way they shared a microphone on the stage as they traded off vocals. Some of the music to me sounded like a conversation between them but done in public. I didn’t know if this was an act and, if it was/is, not significant. But it was compelling to see them do what they do and how they make the private into the public.

Down in Albion was recorded when The Libertines broke up, and right at the moment of Doherty’s problem with narcotics, the law, and is famous for the wrong reasons, or maybe, for the right reasons? It’s not the gossip that appeals to me, but the fact that he bases his image on 19th-century poets or even a real-life version of Bertolt Brecht’s Baal. He’s a man who writes songs and takes life at that very moment. A romantic artist who sings and writes romantic songs. He is even more Rimbaud than Patti Smith, another admirer of that world.

The image of Pete Doherty is more important than his music. It’s almost impossible to separate the man from his material. The more damaged he gets, the more loveable he is. This is not a healthy relationship with fame, but to the fan, it’s catnip for the kitty. It’s no wonder that the high-fashion world loves him. He’s a presence that sells ideals, lifestyles, and the ability for the listener to get near the poison but not take it for themselves. That’s Doherty’s job.

The good news is that Pete can survive and still keep his talent intact through his recent album with French composer and musician Frédéric Lo on their, The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime. Doherty never changes his character but puts himself in different situations. He knows how to be true to himself in whatever company he keeps. Down in Albion, recorded and made in the height of his intense fame and narcotic troubles came through due to his solid aesthetics and sense of dandyism. Although totally the opposite of Jonathan Richman, there’s a connection in that character plays out and very much becomes the music.

The songs on Down in Albion may fall apart, but Doherty and the band have the talent to make chaos into melodic songs. La Belle Et La Bête is musically fragile, but it becomes beauty-like due to the beast’s approach to La Belle. The wastefulness of Fuck Forever and Pipedown is narcotically beautiful as well. So, it is seduction in action when you add a pinch of poison, a certain amount of pose, and things that can fall apart quickly. That is very much Babyshambles’ Down in Albion.