(Courtesy of EMI Music.)
Finally. 2009 has its first masterpiece. If that seems like a bold statement, especially if you’ve never heard a song penned by Pete Doherty, then let me introduce you to the man and his work. Since 2002, when he first broke through in the UK with the clanging opening chords of The Libertines’ “What A Waster”, through to 2007 when his current band Babyshambles released the severely underrated Shotter’s Nation, Pete Doherty has released 4 full-length albums (with two different bands), 2 EPs and several one-off singles. In his spare time, when he wasn’t playing shows or in jail for his numerous public misdemeanours, he also recorded several batches of new songs and released them to his fans for free online. Not bad for a six-year stretch.
For Grace/Wastelands, his first solo album, Doherty’s collected the best of his songs from those demos and bootlegs and polished them into real gems. From the almost Keatsian opening couplet of “Arcady” (“In Arcady a life trips along / Pure and simple as the shepherd’s song”) to the life-in-the-gutter romance of the closing “Lady Don’t Fall Backwards”, Doherty is in stunning poetic and melodic form. In “1939 Returning”, he details the early horrors of WWII - “Kids knee deep in rubble / London urchins gray with dust” - and then finds those war-children again in modern times “staring blankly into the TV guide in 2009”. Elsewhere, Doherty finds inspiration for his lyrics in the Bible; “Salome” retells the story of the death of John the Baptist.
Musically, the album benefits greatly from the sublime production of Stephen Street, the man behind the mixing desk not only for Doherty’s last album, Babyshambles’ Shotter’s Nation, but also for classic British albums like Blur’s Parklife and The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead. Street provides inspired touches on songs like the lead single “Last of the English Roses”, adding reverbed melodica and getting a decidedly dubby sound out of the bass. He’s also clearly been keeping his ear to the ground; the orchestration on “1939 Returning”, “A Little Death Around the Eyes” and “Salome” make me almost certain he’s been listening to The Last Shadow Puppets’ debut and borrowing from it generously. I don’t mean that to discredit him; the James Bond-like strings certainly enhance those songs and give the album a cohesive sonic focus.
However, Street’s most inspired move as producer was in drafting Blur’s Graham Coxon, arguably the best guitarist of the Britpop era. Coxon brings a nuanced approach to songs like the folksy “I Am The Rain” and his professionalism allows Doherty to get away with a bizarre foray into Dixieland jazz in “Sweet By and By” without turning it into novelty.
In the end though, it all comes back to the man at the mic. Doherty has crafted an elegant, flowing album that’s perfect for late-night listening, with a bottle of wine on the table and rain pelting the windows. Though it may not initially wow you, with its graceful lyrics and textured sound, Grace/Wastelands is an album that rewards repeated plays. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
For Grace/Wastelands, his first solo album, Doherty’s collected the best of his songs from those demos and bootlegs and polished them into real gems. From the almost Keatsian opening couplet of “Arcady” (“In Arcady a life trips along / Pure and simple as the shepherd’s song”) to the life-in-the-gutter romance of the closing “Lady Don’t Fall Backwards”, Doherty is in stunning poetic and melodic form. In “1939 Returning”, he details the early horrors of WWII - “Kids knee deep in rubble / London urchins gray with dust” - and then finds those war-children again in modern times “staring blankly into the TV guide in 2009”. Elsewhere, Doherty finds inspiration for his lyrics in the Bible; “Salome” retells the story of the death of John the Baptist.
Musically, the album benefits greatly from the sublime production of Stephen Street, the man behind the mixing desk not only for Doherty’s last album, Babyshambles’ Shotter’s Nation, but also for classic British albums like Blur’s Parklife and The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead. Street provides inspired touches on songs like the lead single “Last of the English Roses”, adding reverbed melodica and getting a decidedly dubby sound out of the bass. He’s also clearly been keeping his ear to the ground; the orchestration on “1939 Returning”, “A Little Death Around the Eyes” and “Salome” make me almost certain he’s been listening to The Last Shadow Puppets’ debut and borrowing from it generously. I don’t mean that to discredit him; the James Bond-like strings certainly enhance those songs and give the album a cohesive sonic focus.
However, Street’s most inspired move as producer was in drafting Blur’s Graham Coxon, arguably the best guitarist of the Britpop era. Coxon brings a nuanced approach to songs like the folksy “I Am The Rain” and his professionalism allows Doherty to get away with a bizarre foray into Dixieland jazz in “Sweet By and By” without turning it into novelty.
In the end though, it all comes back to the man at the mic. Doherty has crafted an elegant, flowing album that’s perfect for late-night listening, with a bottle of wine on the table and rain pelting the windows. Though it may not initially wow you, with its graceful lyrics and textured sound, Grace/Wastelands is an album that rewards repeated plays. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
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