Search - Peter Doherty :: Grace / Wastelands

A soothingly gloomy album . . .

Kristin Grace Parker | Mountain View, CA | 04/26/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is an album worth hearing because it feels very natural and intimate. Whether or not you enjoy this album, it will give you the opportunity to see the world from the sad, witty perspective of a person who excites the public's curiosity. I don't think the songs are fantastic, but they are good. After a first listen, the lyrics, insidiously hypnotic grooves, and jazzy changes make this excellent background music, especially if you are feeling contemplative and gloomy. Moods too subtle and delicate to survive an incessant backbeat are given room to sprawl out and linger. I found it cathartic to brood with Pete and indulge in his arty kind of melancholy."

Great, But a Little Worrisome

Timothy Hallinan | Bangkok/Los Angeles | 05/21/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a rich, beautiful, muted, heartbreaking and occasionally exhilarating CD. All the media crap aside, Doherty is the real thing, an artist who can put deepest and sometimes his darkest impulses into memorable, if often heartbreaking songs. His singing is perfect: he never gets in the lyrics' way and his phrasing is totally his own. And there's not enough to be said for the production. It's immaculate.



What's worrisome is that most of these are old songs. I'd be terrifically happy to hear a dozen new songs, if only to demonstrate that Pete's still turning them out.



But this is a collection that just gets richer with repeated listening."

Pete Doherty? Really? Really? NO...REALLY? WOW!

wm | ...onward....thru the fog! | 05/18/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"


If someone played this CD for me and didn't tell me who it was, I'd never guess Pete Doherty. If they then told me who it was, I'd say "The Pete Doherty who's been on a slow motion trainwreck to self destruction on the front page of tabloids for much of the last decade? That Pete Doherty?".



Most people probably wouldn't characterize Mr. Doherty's heroin induced public conduct as mature. Well, folks, I'm here to tell you that after just a couple of spins of this CD, this is mature music and songwriting. With the possible exception of "Sweet By and By", which, with its New Orleans brass band sound doesn't quite seem to fit in with the rest of the album, for the most part, this is a great record.



It's been said that good songwriting comes only from people who wrestle with problems, internal strife, psychological issues, etc. Who knows whether that's really true or not, but if there is any truth to that, then Grace/Wastelands is a good record to use as an example in support of that argument.



It doesn't hurt matters that the great guitarist and creator of retro ambience, Graham Coxon, plays on most of the tracks.



This is music that will stand the test of time. Now, if Mr. Doherty can just keep the momentum of what he's done here going, we can look forward to more good stuff, and hopefully, look back at his self destructive tabloid days as just a phase."