SHE'S NEVER MET AN ALBUM SHE DIDN'T LIKE

Last week, Victoria Newton from the Sun's Bizarre column could barely contain her delight at hearing the Madonna album early, dishing out elevens out of ten all round. (The Madonna camp's decision to soft-soft-launch the Kabbalah Collection this way proved shrewd; we've lost count of the number of web news services reporting that 'the first journalist to hear the record says it's brilliant', confusing Newton with a journalist and a PR puff piece with a review.) This week, she's had "the first cheeky listen" to the Babyshambles album ("the first" here being a term used to mean "like half the internet, I've also downloaded it") and guess what? It's "classic", "a gem", "surprisingly good". Curiously, though, people who actually like the band don't seem quite as gushy about it.

music pete doherty victoria newton babyshambles