So why is Babyshambles’ Shotter’s Nation on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
My introductionMy introduction to Babyshambles took a bit of circuitous path, but thankfully led me to a place eventually where I was able to appreciate this extraordinary album with the oddball name (to us Yanks, at any rate) of Shotter’s Nation.
I recall the name Babyshambles first being uttered by my old friend Aaron, who hails from Northern Ireland.
My friendship with Aaron is a bit unusual: we first connected as fellow bloggers associated with a blogging community called Blogcritics, a bootstrapped startup that I wound up helping to run back in the blogging heyday*.
* My wife and I met up with Aaron in person during a trip to Ireland in 2019, which was one of the coolest parts of the trip.
This was also back in the very earliest podcasting days. We’re talking the era before most people had even heard of them – think the time period when Adam Curry had the most popular podcast (after he was an MTV VJ and before we went all crazy MAGA or whenever). Anyway, my man Aaron had a very cool podcast during that era, and he introduced me to bands around that time I hadn’t heard of (with his great accent and Irish-born wit) such as Bright Eyes, the Arctic Monkeys, and Babyshambles.
Now, at some point, I also got turned on to The Libertines – a band I grew to very much dig, as you can see by way of my including three of their albums in the best 1,000 albums ever (including their self-titled debut at #167) – but it took me some ill-defined amount of time before I connected the dots between frontman and guitarist Pete Doherty’s involvement in both bands.
If you have any notion at all of who Doherty is – given his uh… notoriety, you might say – you might be slightly astonished by my protracted process of connecting these dots.* What’s interesting to me about this is that it aligns with a point in my adult life where I was still (and remain) very interested in rock music but much less tuned into the pop culture “zeitgeist,” for lack of a better word, than I was when I was younger.
* Check out the “Relationships and children” and “Drug use and legal problems” sections of Pete Doherty’s Wikipedia page for further background.
Part of the reason that I mention all of the above is to emphasize that not only did Shotter’s Nation land within the Top 80 of the best 1,000 albums ever, but it’s also tops in terms of Pete Doherty-related projects that he’s produced to date.
What never fails to captivate me is Doherty’s facility with melodies and songwriting within a rock music framework. And while there’s a very nice balance of “louder” and “softer” rock sounds across the album, the entirety of Shotter’s Nation’s 12 tracks and 43 minutes of running time throttles along with joyful and delightful ease.
“Carry on up the Morning,” the opening track, is as good a place to start as any in terms of underscoring what I mean.
I’ll also emphasize two other points:
- It’ll serve as a pretty good barometer song to see if Babyshambles works for your particular tastes if you’re not familiar
- Be warned! This stuff is ecstatically catchy and may well get stuck between your ear holes for weeks at a time
For my money, the peak of Shotter’s Nation comes with “Side of the Road,” the fourth track. I like thinking about Doherty’s northern English roots (he hails from Northumberland, just south of Scotland) here and how it interplays with garage, alt rock, and punk rock traditions while maintaining its own very singular sound.
Recently, I’ve become absolutely enthralled with “There She Goes,” which is arguably the quietest and most delicate number on the album. It has a surprisingly jazzy feel, with its walking bass line and slinky feel.
And tell me how could I let go
Since I caught a glimpse of your immense soul
You were dancing to northern soul
Just one glance, and well you know
Meanwhile, tracks like “Delivery”… well, deliver much more straightforward (and outstanding) alt rock-meets-garage punk that’ll be quite familiar to Libertines’ fans. And as bonus, the chorus is glorious.
Some stats & info about Babyshambles – Shotter’s Nation
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Garage Rock Revival, Alternative Rock, Indie Rock, Post-Punk Revival, British Bands
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 3.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Shotter’s Nation released? 2007
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #79 out of 1,000
Babyshambles’ Shotter’s Nation on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from Babyshambles’ Shotter’s Nation that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
I’m half dead, I’m a third alive, a quarter ticking over in the middle by the side of the road.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.