Album Review: Peter Doherty Grace/Wastelands

Pete Doherty is dead. Long live ‘Peter’ Doherty. For the riotous Pete has now, we are lead to believe, become the righteous Peter; and- armed with a début solo album- he is desperate for people to actually listen to his music rather than just read about his life. And so, ever the London urchin, he has begged, stolen and borrowed his way to 12 tracks best described as a hotchpotch of genres and cultural references. He picks Oscar Wilde‘s pocket here- ‘I never saw a man who looked with such a wistful eye...’ ('Broken Love Song'), and nicks a couplet from his old friend Mr. Barat there- ‘your boyfriend's name was Dave/But I was bold and brave’ ('A Little Death Around the Eyes'). Cobbled together musically by Graham Coxon, of Blur fame, and production wise by Stephen Street, it is an album that comes complete with all the distinctive images of Albion, Arcady and meeting in Chinatown for opium and tea that we have come to expect from the reckless Libertine, yet Street and Coxon ensure they are conveyed in a more comprehensible and listenable manner than they would have been otherwise. From the beautiful ‘What Katie Did’-esque ‘Sheepskin Tearaway’, to the sheer poetry of ‘1939 Returning’ there are some real highlights, and the album is an example of how Doherty can sound drug-free and well-produced. But as with his band Babyshambles’ last album ‘Shotter’s Nation’ there is very much a feeling that- for all the advantages of ‘Peter’s’ newly found abstemiousness and sobriety- the end of the raw, ramshackle, shambolic music of ‘Pete’ is something of a loss. 7/10