“Babyshambles aren’t back,” Pete Doherty warned last month, “this band has always been here.” Well, that’s good to know.
Between Doherty’s unfortunate jailtime and rehab zigzagging, the short-lived Libertines reunion and the departure of two ‘shambles drummers, it felt very much like the acclaimed indie foursome were very much on ice.
It was only when new track ‘Nothing Comes To Nothing’ dropped last month that we realised that Doherty, Whitnall, McConnell and drummer (currently Jamie Morrison of Stereophonics) weren’t hiding anywhere. They’ve just been rambling around in the mid-noughties.
A breezy, poetic piece of vintage Doherty soul-baring, the track could easily have been plucked from the outtakes of Down In Albion or Shotter’s Nation, and, like at least some of non-comeback album Sequel To The Prequel, it had us damn near checking our calendars to see if we hadn’t been yanked somehow back in time.
Thankfully, however, STTP is more experimental than anyone could have expected; laced with nostalgia, but also laden with pleasant surprises, it shifts with Doherty’s characteristic stumbling elan through vaudeville, music hall, ska – even honky tonk! – when not harking back to the band’s early days.
Or to put it another way, swerving recklessly from swoonworthy guitar pop ballads (‘Maybeline’) to niche curveballs (‘Dr. No’) to all-out indie anthemia (‘Farmer’s Daughter’), the long-awaited 12-tracker is thoughtful, compulsive and surprisingly joyful. Even the would-be tearjerker ‘Picture Me In Hospital’ is fun.
There are countless playful examples of classic Doherty wit, from the deliciously abstruse (“If I had to tell the truth, I would be lying”) to the shockingly romantic (“Are you trying to say this world isn’t beautiful enough?”), while some tracks just beg to be bellowed out in a mucky field (“I really don’t like your boyfriend’s face and I am going to try and take his place”). Others, for example the childlike lovesong ‘Penguins’, will leave Babyshambles open for a riotous slagging.
Asked recently how he feels about widespread criticism of his tumultuous career, Doherty responded in typically devil-may-care fashion.
“So what, I’m the failed Morrissey?” he said. “Well, let them be inspired by that. Let them create an immortal piece of work. The one I didn’t do. But for God’s sake, let them occasionally find a bit of fucking peace and happiness. Please.”
Sequel To The Prequel won’t satisfy those naysayers who make a career of demanding an infallible Doherty magnum opus before they stop making jokes about his post-rehab pudge – but as for that peace and happiness stuff, there’s oodles of it on this LP.
Would I trade a finely-tuned, start-to-finish masterstroke for STTP’s moments of slyly-captured bliss? Probably not. But then, no Babyshambles fan expects perfection. We’re far too clever for that.

Key Track: 'Maybeline'