New Pete Doherty Album Leaks — It’s Great, And Not Just for a Crackhead!

Babyshambles, Shotter’s Nation

Official release date: October 23

We think: Pete Doherty may be more famous as a tabloid figure than as a musician, he might be personally responsible for a double-digit percentage of England’s national crime rate, and, yeah, maybe he did teach his kitten to smoke crack. But evidently none of these things disqualify one from making a pretty excellent album. Despite all the personal drama surrounding it (his arrest record has its own Wikipedia page, by the way), Shotter’s Nation is probably the best thing Doherty’s done since the Libertines’ debut in 2002. Shambolic Kinks rewrites like “Delivery” and “Deft Left Hand,” along with gorgeous closer “Lost Art of Murder,” are almost enough to make us hold out hope for that new Britney Spears album. Almost.