Pete Doherty - Grace/Wastelands
Pete Doherty and Michael Jackson have one thing in common: it's very hard to disentangle both individuals from the music they are promoting. Both men have turned themselves into marketable commodities for the media, only to see their carefully crafted personas publicly unravel under intense tabloid scrutiny. Jackson, though, has not written a good song in over two decades; Doherty still knows how to crank out a tune. Shrewdly, he has recruited both Blur producer Stephen Street and Graham Coxon on guitar, and the result is... pretty much business as usual, albeit with a new pop sheen. To his credit, Doherty seems to realise that even if he is required to play the same bohemian part, his backing band can always shake things up, and while there's nothing here to match Fuck Forever, Coxon and Street add pleasant hints of bubblegum-pop (Last of the English Roses) and even country (Arcadie) to a competent, eclectic mix. [Ewen Millar]
Pete Doherty plays The Picture House, Edinburgh on 27 Mar.