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It's also about love, loss, the British urban landscape, laughing at yourself, great guitars, exciting chord changes, tight rhythms, the Stones-Who-Kinks-(Small) Faces-Clash-Jam-Smiths-Happy Mondays-Stone Roses-Oasis-Blur history of Britrock, rich, simple production, songs with layers, a really good band and a singer who has relocated his voice.
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Street entirely avoids DIA’s flinty spectrality and staticky crackle and turns a bright light on the smart, compact and relentlessly exciting arrangements he’s here coaxed from the band.
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Once again its vagaries are its distinction. Doherty makes a case for flat-on-your-ass alienation in an insane wartime culture.
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Pete Doherty has just dropped one of the best indie rock records you’re likely to hear this year.
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Shotters Nation isn't his magum opus, it's still infinitely more consistent, listenable and likely to get played on the radio than its predecessor ever was.
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Lyrically, Shotter's Nation brims with the insight and eloquence with which Doherty continually surprises you.
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It's a record full of straight-up good songs from a band that should be (and would be, except for Doherty's fuckery) much more important than it is.
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Shotter's Nation, is surprisingly good and sonically upbeat (if not so much lyrically).
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Free of his former band's birthplace, Pete Doherty now exacts revenge on Shotter's Nation, whose opening briar 'Carry on up the Morning' rings instantly Libertine, as does the stumbling tempo and frontman's stutter-step lyricism on 'Side of the Road.'
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Pete Doherty remains the British tabloids' pinata of choice--but at least his music is looking up.
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Doherty's second album with Babyshambles, is a fine effort and marked improvement on his first post-Libertines sally, but its explosiveness is held in check by an unfortunate air of self-awareness.
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While Shotter’s Nations contains some of the brightest spots we have seen from Doherty in several years, there remains a few songs with wasted potential.
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a few songs that lag a bit, this is easily Babyshambles' best work yet.
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Occasionally veering into rakish skiffle in an annoying hat, it’s not quite the righteous sword-slash of vindication prayed for by fans; still, it’s a relief to see Doherty’s muse in surprisingly rude health.
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Shotter's Nation has no stand-out moments. Delivery is about the best of the bunch, but it's no rival to anything The Libertines ever did.
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While Street may have tidied up the sound, there's no disguising the other shortcomings. Almost half of Shotter's Nation is deeply ordinary indie rock, its highlights padded out with spark-free songs ('You Talk,' 'Side of the Road') and irritatingly half-formed ideas.
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MojoIn the end you're left with a creeping sense of missed chances, made more painful by the fact the Babyshambles have so obviously raised their game. [Oct 2007, p.88]
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On Shotter's Nation, the Brit-punk rogue sounds light-hearted, strumming through an assortment of Clash-and-Kinks-style hooks.
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Under The RadarDoherty's presence, which is monumental, overpowers the rest of Babyshambles: Drew McConnell, Mick Whitnall, and Adam Ficek. [Fall 2007, p.72]
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There are a few instances where the songs manage to make the listener forget about the court appearances and remember Doherty's uniquely skewered way around a guitar line and lyric.
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Q MagazineOne shouldn't underestimate the achievements of this sturdy, confident record. [Nov 2007, p.131]
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SpinShotter's Nation is still clotted with half-realized melodies and gutter-poet grime. [Nov 2007, p.117]
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Sadly, there’s little to add to that post-Bracket mixtape here; aside from the single and 'UnBiloTitled'--a track that first appeared on internet forums years ago. Sedated by Street's production, the band lose the wild, rubbish quality that Mick Jones' incompetence presented them with just as they're learning how to write focused songs.
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Doherty is no mad genius--he's just mad, and it shows in Nation's slipshod execution and undernourished songcraft.
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Nation is saved from being a total failure at its close, with 'Deft Left Hand.'
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Alternative PressThe second album from the glorified solo project Babyshambles is a half-baked abortion. [Dec 2007, p.184]
User score distribution:
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Positive: 36 out of 42
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Mixed: 4 out of 42
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Negative: 2 out of 42
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jyotirmayaDFeb 19, 2008
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AlejandroI.Oct 23, 2007Pete is a fucking genius.
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Oct 21, 2011