3/5
Pete Doherty is a walking, talking BBC daytime series that the general populace should have axed ages ago when quality began to plummet. But against all odds, the shitty sitcom lumbers on. Though the audience is dwindling and the supporting cast keeps changing, die-hard fans of lead Libertines singer will be pleased to stumble upon the vintage trove of debut solo Grace/Wastelands.
The first single, ‘Last of the English Roses,’ reads like a junk mail headline but sounds like a rehash of ‘Guns of Brixton.’ Its foreboding shuffle beats down in Clash fashion, but is soon lifted by Blurry lyrics ‘mdash; quite possibly because Blur guitarist Graham Coxon is present on all but one track in Doherty’s debut.
‘A Little Death Around the Eyes,’ co-written by fellow Libertines frontman Carl Bar’acirc;t, could be a ‘James Bond’ theme: Lethargic strings and harmonica-laced organs draw silhouettes of tousled-haired, heat-packing vixens with enough suave to make any Anglophile proud.
Anyone expecting Wastelands to pull out the typical man-and-guitar act will be disappointed ‘mdash; this is the closest the pale and pudgy Doherty has come to channeling the romanticized, long-lost England he probably envisions while shooting up. Many of the tracks date back five years ‘mdash; pre-Babyshambles and pre-tabloids ‘mdash; but were put aside because they didn’t suit the Libertines aesthetic.
Most disregard Doherty as a comedy of errors: a judgment his solo experiment hopes to combat. Apparently, the bloke has more balls than his powdery nose would suggest.