Peter Doherty - 'Grace/Wastelands' (Parlophone) 16/03/09

Pete Doherty; He’s one of the tabloids' rambling, shambling incoherent junkie scumbags of choice. One you warn your kids about, the most infamous man in pop. Far more famous for what he sticks in his arm and for dating a model two years ago than anything he has ever committed to record or strummed on his guitar. Pete Doherty- the name precedes him. However like Madonna before him Pete Doherty has reinvented himself. He is now Peter Doherty and that extra ‘r’ is bringing an air of cohesion, clarity and a Stephen Street produced solo album with it. Peter is here to show us that the mistakes of the past are part of a closed book and he is now writing on a fresh page.

Ever since ‘Up The Bracket' was released in 2002 there have been whispers about a solo album from Doherty but as his problems and addictions have worsened it seemed the chances of anything coming to light were deteriorating with him. However, Pete Doherty signed a contract with Parlophone owing them two Babyshambles albums and one solo effort. So following the decent ‘Shotter’s Nation’ and the live album ‘Oh What A Lovely Tour’ from Babyshambles comes ‘Grace/ Wastelands’ and therein lies the problem with this album - it sounds like something that was due in as opposed to a natural, creative recording.

The reason The Libertines were so brilliant was the song writing craft between Doherty and Carl Barat. Between Carl’s straight up punk aesthetic (woefully exposed with Dirty Pretty Things) and Pete Doherty’s romantic dream pop they hit upon a wonderful middle ground where the literate met the direct, a decade defining clatter of love in the riots. Stripped of Barat’s guidance  however and Doherty becomes a wanderer, too happy to meander and explore dead ends. It has been evident with Babyshambles to an extent but left to his own devices Peter's solo album is a more indulgent piece of work all together.

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