Spun: Babyshambles

By Rachel Betts-Wilmott

Grungy, Brit-pop rock has a place in nearly everyone’s hearts. One can’t fend off the catchiness of scrappy guitar riffs, slightly-accented singing and driving bass lines. Babyshambles has the sound down, channeling elements of Art Brut’s kooky tunes and Blur’s memorable style with some interjecting cowbell in their latest, Shotter’s Nation.

Nation is an album that personifies quintessential garage rock and, basically, what Babyshambles is all about. That is, it showcases the use of the same chords that every band in their garage jamming uses, with a slightly different interpretation put on them. That said, what first pulls the ear’s notice is the track, “Delivery” and its striking similarities to the Kinks’ “All Day and All of the Night,” with a nearly identical guitar-driven line. In “There She Goes,” the band takes a slightly different and surprisingly refreshing direction and pulls out the upright bass, brushes on drums and classic-style vocals to create a swingy, low-key shuffle with waa’d guitar in and out throughout the track.

Given Babyshambles’ work in the past and the offerings of lead singer Pete Doherty’s other project, the Libertines, Shotter’s Nation is exactly what one should expect it to be: a 12-track journey through every garage rock song ever.