Down in Albion

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Professional reviews
Down in Albion

Studio album by Babyshambles
Released	14 November 2005
Recorded	2005
Genre	Garage Rock, Indie Rock
Length	63:49
Label	Rough Trade Records
Producer(s)	Mick Jones
All Music Guide Image:2.5 stars.svg link PopMatters (8/10) link GigWise Image:3 stars.svg link BBC ROCK&ALT "superb" link BBC Collective Image:3 stars.svg link Metacritic Image:3 stars.svg link
Babyshambles chronology
	Down in Albion (2005)	The Blinding EP (2006)

Down in Albion is the debut album by Babyshambles, Pete Doherty's post-Libertines band.

Down in Albion was released on November 14 2005 on Rough Trade Records, although it was leaked on to the Internet on October 19. Produced by Mick Jones, Down in Albion contains a rerecorded version of their second single "Killamangiro" as well as an experimental reggae track, "Pentonville". The inclusion of "Albion" is controversial among fans, due to the song's history as a fan favourite from the days of The Libertines. Down in Albion is intended to be a concept album, telling the tale of a beauty and a beast. The album received mixed reviews on release, with the general feeling that it sounded "lazy", suffered from bad production and failed to live up to the standard of The Libertines' previous material (a few of the tracks on this album made their debut on various sessions recorded by Doherty's former band). The first track, "La Belle et la Bête" or "Beauty and the Beast", features the vocals of Doherty's on/off girlfriend Kate Moss, and "Pentonville" was written by Doherty and The General, a friend he met whilst an inmate in Pentonville Prison.

The album was seen as Doherty somewhat wanting to move away from The Libertines classic fast-paced, ballsy and altogether fuller-sounding music. This album featured more romanticism (Barat, with his new band Dirty Pretty Things, elected to cut out romanticism altogether) and a more poetic lyrical structure. Although fans were slow to applaud the effort, over time, and with Babyshambles gigging consistently throughout Europe, the album has now been credited as a brilliant effort - especially considering Doherty's state during its recording. Admitedly however, it is when performing Libertines classic 'Time For Heroes' during concerts that the fans seem to truly relish the Babyshambles sound.

The artwork for the album was created by Doherty.

It has sold 110,000 copies in the UK, and was recently released in the United States.[1]