My Favorite Album of 2009: Grace/Wastelands by Peter Doherty

It may not be “the best” album, but these lists are subjective, like the way we listen to music. But, I can tell you that this year, Pete Doherty's first solo effort fit the mood, the tone and the spirit of my 2009. A hopeful breath of fresh air that tastes of a little longing on the exhale.

Pete Doherty has been marinating in 50 years of British pop…and heroin, alcohol, cocaine…yeah yeah yeah, I know. Just thought I’d get drug jokes out of the way before I go on. And, I do feel that the druggie-bad-boy issue needs to be addressed because of the stunning foil it provides for the innocence of this album. Doherty comes off as blushing troubadour from a simpler time—sent to the past to dry out, and now emerges gentler and wiser. Whether he constructed the songs on this album to conjure the history of British pop or not (I think not), the work is soaked in it. There is such a distinct sense of place—but not time. However, the nostalgia that courses through every track makes you yearn for everything past, before, and gone.

Stylistically, this album is all over the map; a couple of ragtime ditties, a torch song here, a folk song there, and some straight up alternative, indie, pop tunes. The magic of this album lies in the threads that hold them all together. I think these threads are the Beatles, Oasis (during the 5 minutes they didn’t suck), and The Smiths (mostly Johnny Marr). Doherty somehow manages to balance some fucking lovely Beatle-esque melodies (circa 1968), effortless pop-hooks, with some excellent punk guitar work—nice and jangley and oh so English.

The result is an album to smoke lots of cigarettes to while basking in the memory of your last encounter with Him or Her; and imagining running down the streets of London with them as you make fun of strangers and try on funny hats at the flea market, then go home and make love with a gentle rain falling outside…and lots, lots more cigarettes.