http://akamai-static.nme.com/images/09210_111426_petedohertysoloalbum.jpg

 

Producer: Stephen Street

Recorded: Olympic Studios, London, Autumn 2008

Tracklisting:

 

'Arcadie'

'Last Of The English Roses'

'1939 Returning'

'A Little Death Around The Eyes'

'Salome'

'Through The Looking Glass'

'Sweet By And By'

'Palace Of Bone'

'Sheepskin Tearaway' (featuring Dot Allison)

'Broken Love Song' (featuring Graham Coxon)

'New Love Grows On Trees'

'Lady, Don't Fall Backwards'

 

The album also features: Mik Whitnall, Adam Ficek and Drew McConnell

Track by Track guide (curtosy of NME blog):

 

So, it’s in – the first copy (it actually says “001” on it) of Pete Doherty’s (as-yet untitled) solo album - and we’ve got all the deets about one of the most eagerly-anticipated records of the year. It’s almost exciting enough to make us momentarily forget about the prospect of a Joe Lean album in 2009.

 

So, after releasing two albums with The Libertines and another two with Babyshambles so far, what does the next installment in Pete’s musical career sound like?

 

Well, like Gorillaz. And The Coral. And The La’s. And Blur. And Bob Dylan.

 

The album is the most diverse album Pete has made by a long stretch. The bulk of it sees an atmospheric mix of acoustic guitar (mainly played by Graham Coxon) and strings set a keynote of tenderness and mystery – far away from the frenetic ‘Shamble-ness of ‘f*** Forever’, ‘Pipedown’, ‘Delivery' and the like.

 

But there are real curveballs that may knock Pete fans sideways – most notably the Gorrilaz-esque ‘Last Of The English Roses’ and the bizarre, snaking ‘Sweet By And By’. See below for a full track-by-track guide with video clips to give a taster of the music.

 

Arcadie

Pitter-patter drums and folk-jaunt acoustic finger-picking from Graham Coxon on this Dylan-esque opener suggest that Pete’s album could be a ‘Freewheeling Pete Doherty’-style affair. This’ll be familiar to fans who’ve forked out for Pete’s low-key London shows over the past year.

 

Last Of The English Roses

‘The Freewheeling Pete Doherty’? Scrunch that idea into a ball and take aim for the wastepaper basket. This, the album’s lead single, sounds like Gorillaz. Murky bass, gloopy heartbeat drums, harmonica – without Shaun Ryder popping up halfway through and drunkenly shouting “IT’S DARE!” this couldn’t be more reminiscent of the work of Damon Albarn’s ‘nana-chomping side project. Except, of course, instead of Albarn’s nonchalant croon we’ve got Pete’s somewhat more distinctive vocal effort.

 

The lyrics too could only really be Doherty’s, cutting gutter’n’stars contemporary references with his romanticised view of English heritage – singing about a girl who knows her “Kappas from her Reeboks” then “her Winstons from her Enochs”. So far, so completely unlike anything Pete’s ever recorded before.

 

1939 Returning

An acoustic-based effort with filmic strings and an Eastern riff, apparently ‘1939 Returning’ was written with a view to getting Amy Winehouse to add some warbles to it. There’s no Wino here, no remnant of backward-looking jazz-pop, instead it's an atmospheric swirl that fits with ‘Arcadie’ as one of the more ‘bare bones’ efforts here

 

A Little Death Behind The Eyes

A Scott Walker-esque string duvet sweeps over this one – has Pete been listening to ‘Scott 4’… or ‘The Age Of The Understatement'? Either way, this is the song on the album most likely to ever appear in a Bond flick, and it features a line Pete has said was written by Carl Barat: “Your boyfriend’s name was Dave, I was bold and brave, and now you’re mine”. The rogue!.

 

Salome

The downbeat death of ‘A Little Death…’ segues wonderfully into the hungover Eastern acoustic guitar riff of ‘Salome’ – a song that’s been kicking around in the Doherty solo cannon for yonks and yonks. More strings and brutal but softly-delivered imagery (“the head of John The Baptist on a plate”, anyone?), it’s about as far from ‘f*** Forever’ as you can get without the help of a space shuttle.

Through The Looking Glass

A song originally cooked up in during Libertines songwriting sessions in France between the Libs’ two albums, ‘Through The Looking Glass’ is the song that most resembles a full band effort on the album. A bulky-based mid-pacer, here Graham Coxon’s guitars are at their most recognisable, the overall effect being a heavy Britpop strike half-way between Babyshambles and early Blur. A possible single?

 

Sweet By And By

Wow. Are we in some kind of 1940s upper class tea party? Not quite, actually the tinkly piano and jazz-parp trumpets suggest we’re in a jaunty illegal whiskey den in New York, 60 years back. And maybe Pete’s had a few too many tumblers of tongue-shrivelling bourbon – towards the end of this he does sound rather… merry. Yup, this album’s eclectic.

 

Palace Of Bone

We don’t think James Skelly is the suing type – possibly a good thing, as ‘Palace Of Bone’, or at least the intro, is pretty Coral-tastic to say the least – ‘Pass It On’ quite literally. In reality this is probably Pete’s obsession wit The La’s becoming more prominent on this understated Liverpudlian-sounding song.

 

Sheepskin Tearaway

Another tender acoustic’n’piano-based effort, this time a duet between Pete and singer Dot Allison, who has joined the Babyshambler to perform it live at various solo gigs over the past year. Not quite a cousin to ‘What Katy Did’ off the Libs’ second album but at least some kind of daughter of an aunt’s sister who you know you’re related to in some way. Babyshambles’ Drew McConnell’s stand-up bass and loungey piano add depth to this sweet, drifting song.

 

Broken Love Song

Remember Wolfman? ‘For Lovers’, from 2004? He is credited with co-writing this. An earlier version was recorded with producer Jake Fior, but this new effort features Wolfy on guitar, building a creeping bass path to a blustering chorus – “They are the loneliest” repeated on possibly the most prominent hook on an album which, as Pete has said himself, is a rather uncommercial effort.

 

New Love Grows On Trees

From the blustery ‘Broken Love Song’ back to a cinematic bass-sweep’n’acoustic-tied effort. An air raid siren moans in mournfully over one of the more lyrically deft songs on the album, Pete singing, “Are you still talking to, All of those dead film stars, like you used to?/And are you still thinking of, all of those pretty rhymes/And perfect crimes, like you used to love?”. This had been kicking around the Libs and ‘Shambles canon for a while before Pete decided to use it here.

 

Lady, Don’t Fall Backwards

An understated two-and-a-half minutes of acoustic guitar and echoing Richard Hawley-esque electric guitar meandering in the background to close the album. Here Pete gets all romantic – “Every giro day dress me like a ladyboy… if we make love in the morning I see your eyes look like two marbles in your head”. A downbeat organ, “Come on fall into my arms” repeated over the final strum, and that’s Pete’s solo album done.

Everyone he's working with points to a good solo album, lets hope it turns out that way *crosses fingers*

Hear the tracks:

 

[note: these are not the actual recordings that will feature on the album, just past versions]

 

Arcadie

 

Last of the English Roses

 

1939 Returning

 

A Little Death Around The Eyes

 

Salome

 

Through The Looking Glass

 

Sweet By and By

*unavailable, hopefully coming soon*

 

Palace of Bone

 

Sheepskin Tearaway

 

Broken Love Song

*hopefully coming very soon*

 

New Love Grows On Trees

 

Lady, Don't Fall Backwards (Libertines version)

:dance:

 

So pleased a release date has finally been confirmed. I can't wait!

'Last of the English Roses' sounds like Gorillaz? :o

INTERESTING INDEED :thinking:

Pete names solo album!

 

Pete Doherty has revealed the title of his forthcoming solo album.

 

The record, which is now set to be released on March 16, is called 'Grace/Wastelands'. A single, 'Last Of The English Roses', is released on March 9.

 

'Grace/Wastelands' features guest appearances from Blur's Graham Coxon, Dot Allison and Doherty's Babyshambles bandmates.

 

Speaking of Coxon's involvement, Doherty said in a statement: "I remember when I was about 15 and still listened to Pet Shop Boys and Chas & Dave, and some lad at school who was a bit of a mod lent me a Blur tape and it had on it a song called 'Bank Holiday. I was like, 'What's this?' I said to him, 'I liked that tape but that one song, it's a bit fast.' And he said, 'Yeah, it's punk. It depends what mood you're in.'

 

"And then something sort of clicked in me. I've always liked Coxon, it seems, and I don't know why."

 

He added: "I was absolutely horrified when he said he was actually a fan of some of the things I've done."

 

The tracklisting of Pete Doherty's solo album is:

 

'Arcadie'

'Last Of The English Roses'

'1939 Returning'

'A Little Death Around The Eyes'

'Salome'

'Through The Looking Glass'

'Sweet By And By'

'Palace Of Bone'

'Sheepskin Tearaway'

'Broken Love Song'

'New Love Grows On Trees'

'Lady, Don't Fall Backwards'

it could be a really good album

'Last of the English Roses' has rekindled my Pete love. What an absolute set of stunning lyrics.

 

"Could charm the bee's knees off the bee's" yesyesyesss <3

 

I do believe this will be a great song to relax/spliff yourself silly to at the summer festivities.

FINALLY heard the single properly today! VERY Morrissey and quite uncommercial! Me likey (shock :o ) ^_^

Here's the artwork:

 

http://akamai-static.nme.com/images/09210_111426_petedohertysoloalbum.jpg

I'm liking the cover, i take it Pete made it himself?

'New Love Grows On Trees' is available for download from NME now...sounds pretty much the same as in that video though tbh.

I love the cover art too, I think it probably was made by Pete®.

 

Really can't wait for this album!

review:

 

In his handful of years in the music spotlight, Pete Doherty has endured his share of press, largely unfavorable. As you may remember, Doherty started out as one-half of the songwriting team behind The Libertines, surely one of the most talented acts to have emerged from Britain in the past decade. Toward the end of the Libs' career, as Doherty's behavior began to spiral out of control (drugs, no-shows, even a break-in of his apartment), co-writer and vocalist Carl Barat was forced to remove him for the band's 2004 U.S. tour, at the conclusion of which he dissolved the band. (Barat then went on to form his own side project, Dirty Pretty Things, which of course wasn't as good as The Libertines, either. Following two releases, Barat quietly dissolved that band last year.)

 

Doherty then threw himself headfirst into his side project, Babyshambles, which, although it spawned a few noteworthy singles and continued the reign of Doherty-mania, still found the troubled singer-songwriter missing gigs due to intoxication. Throughout this time, the tabloids were ruthless, picking up every infraction: drug use/crack addition, rehab, arrest, court appearances, etc. His then-relationship with supermodel Kate Moss—also drawn into Doherty's world of drug use, resulting in her being dropped by many of the companies she endorsed—contributed to the near-constant observation; even The New York Times ran frequent updates on his behavior.

 

A couple years later—enough to remove him from the obsessive public eye—and Doherty has returned with Grace/Wasteland, the first release under his own name. The stakes were high; could he make a record strong enough to throw some dirt over past infractions?

 

Unfortunately, the answer is no. Listeners used to the fast-paced pop-tinged rock of Doherty's past projects may be let down—if not outright bored—by the solo effort. The 13 tracks here are mellow and laidback, hearkening to an older time when music was simpler and inoffensive. (Is it just ironic that one of the songs is entitled "1939 Returning"?) In other words, this is a CD your mom is destined to like.

 

Grace/Wasteland applies classic instruments not found on any of the artist's previous releases, including a hearty dose of strings plus horns, tambourines and lots of piano. When guitar does emerge at the forefront (as in the bridge to "Through the Looking Glass"), it almost feels out of place, causing the listener to yearn for Doherty's past catalog.

 

If you're a diehard fan, Grace/Wasteland is going to be a must-have whether it lives up to expectations or not. But if you're a disenfranchised Libertines fan who snapped up Babyshambles releases in the (unmet) hope of a return to greatness, you're certainly not going to be satisfied with Doherty's first solo effort. This is further proof that The Libertines' mastery resulted from the perfect collaboration of Barat and Doherty; apart, it is painfully apparent that the two halves are far from the sum of their whole. C- | Laura Hamlett

:(

 

I liked the Libertines' more upbeat tracks more

This got FOUR stars in Q. Pretty good I'd say!

I'll try to find the review later if I can be bothered

coolness.

 

post all reviews you see here guys innit.

the album has leaked =0

I won't have enough money to buy this on Monday :(

I'll download this now and then buy the week after it's released, when I FINALLY get money :drama:

lol i downloaded it earlier, havent listened yet though.

Good album imo.