The new Babyshambles record has been hailed by some as a ''"return to form''" for Pete Doherty the songwriter, an observation only accurate if you consider his old form to involve rewriting lazy and tuneless versions of the singles on the second Libertines record '' themselves lazy and tuneless rewrites of the singles on the first Libertines record.
Even still '' if desperate self-plagiarism is your genre of choice, you could do a whole lot worse than "You Talk," a hooky and vaguely enjoyable approximation of what elevator garage rock is up to these days. And the video is actually pretty cool: Alternating between scenes of Doherty crooning in the forest (oddly captivating '' though no one ever said the guy lacked charisma) and stumbling through some seedy British nightlife. As for his other return to form...
[Stereogum]