Babyshambles: The Blinding EP

Amid the torrent of Babyshambles-related press releases that fall through our letter box, it’s a rare occurrence that one of them doesn’t hide the phrase: “Original tickets still valid”. Sometimes we fantasise that ‘Original Tickets Still Valid’ is the greatest Babyshambles song never written, with Pete apologising to every single fan he’s ever left waiting outside a gig. Sadly, that song will never be written, and instead we’ve got ‘The Blinding EP’, Babyshambles’ first release with their new carers Parlophone, consisting of five choons that reek of the dreaded stopgap.

Miraculously, however, it verges on the, um, blinding. ‘I Wish’ is the key track here, a delicate horn-flecked homage to 2 Tone that sounds like the aborted summer of ska never happened. Such is the might of Pete’s lyrical trickery that, after listening to him sing for two minutes, even the most vindictive paparazzo is bound to feel some smidgen of sympathy for him. ‘I Wish’ is no exception, and lines like, “I’m piping almost every night/Watch my dreams float by/Out of sight/I wish to God I’d just been stabbed, oh” make you just wanna take him home and start pouring the Horlicks. Exposed to this EP, even those of us who despise Pete Doherty beyond all mortal sense will have to concede the lanky one some sliver of genius.