FRESH BAKED
Peter Doherty
Grace/Wastelands
2009 | Astralwerks
A-

A fetching picture of a feline-masked Kate Moss on the cover of a stray issue of Interview – one of those dusty, months-old volumes that resurfaces at the top of a pile for no apparent reason – reminded me of Pete Doherty. During his own personal troubles (throughout most of the 21st century), Doherty has been very publicly at war with himself, the occupier and the occupied in a time and place of heavy Moss-petting, drug use, brief imprisonment, creepy YouTube clips, and career suicide attempts. For most of the past decade, it has been impossible not to hear tell of Pete(-er, as he now prefers)’s romanticized battles with the trappings of fame. It has, however, been possible to ignore the core reason for his fame – his musical talent and his (un-junked) charismatic potential.

So it came as something of a surprise when the news popped up on my screen – the product of one of those stray press links that appear in a sidebar for no apparent reason – that Peter released a new album this week, Grace/Wastelands. Maybe I just haven’t been following the movements of the pop culture operation the way I should be, or maybe things have gotten to the point where Doherty’s music isn’t, in itself, newsworthy. Maybe we prefer the story of his embattled life better than his actual life’s work – which is the thing that mends what the other thing eventually seeks to destroy.
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