Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres: Review
Peter Doherty
is an English singer who fronted one of Britain's premiere punk revivalists bands of the early 2000's The Libertines. They released two now legendary albums in the mid 2000's before breaking up and waiting until 2015 to reunite and release a third studio album. In the meantime Doherty has released two solo albums met with moderate acclaim and a handful of albums under the Babyshambles band name, but all have failed to capture the magic of the original Libertines projects.
Review By Lavender:
Now I am one of the first to admit that I enjoy punk music more than your average listener and that there are a lot of groups that aren't necessarily essential. But a steady intake of Libertines should be a crucial part of any musical diet. 2002's Up The Bracket is one of the greatest modern punk albums of all time and one of the best rock albums of the 2000's and is purely an essential listen for all music fans. Unfortunately aside from Bracket and 2004's The Libertines most of Doherty's work has been a mixture of solid to mediocre. My expectations weren't sky high for this project given that it is the first Doherty assembled with his touring band The Puta Madres but ultimately I'm pretty happy with what is here. Even though it may not reach that level of Libertines success this album is filled with surprisingly original ideas.
Who's Been Having You over serves as the project lead single and it is as quintessentially British as they come. It's catchy, bouncy and a touch tame by Peter's standards but it lands regardless as a frontal and lively tune with a unique touch on the organ interpolation. The second single was Paradise Under Your Nose an Oasis inspired ballad that is a touch melodramatic for my taste at points ad even though there are some solid strings mixed in throughout the song is ultimately just okay.
Despite my mixed responses to the singles there are a handful of great tracks on the album. The Stream is the sound of Peter chasing down a British Western. It has a touch of 90's in it but at its core is a good song with a very catchy instrumental that stands out on the album and just in the grander scheme of his career. This track is directly followed by Travelling Tinker which is nearly 7 minutes long but uses its time very effectively. After an extended instrumental introduction and some nursery rhyme grade lyrics it kicks off into a pretty solid song with some sharp refrains and enough changes of pace to keep it interesting. Lamentable Ballad Of Gascony Avenue is another quintessentially British tune with bouncy guitars and some tight refrains. The "her side, seaside" scheme on the hook has been stuck in my head since I first heard this project and it really sells the track. Finally Shoreleave is a pretty big track with a lot of ideas and while none of it is particularly new for the album the song is pretty enjoyable and one of the highlights for me in the second half of the project.
Even though there isn't much that is explicitly bad on the project there are some moments that don't exactly thrill me. All At Sea is filled with boyish singing and beachy instrumentals and it has a pretty fun instrumental bridge but ultimately I have some problems with the vocal mixing throughout the track and it ends completely out of nowhere after some weird whispered vocals. A Fool There Was is ultimately a track with similar issues that makes an attempt at an instrumental build but falls short when it ends at a random moment and once again features some weird vocal mixing.
Someone Else To Be is probably my least favorite song here, the strange vocalizing at the songs climax are a total miss and the interpolation of Oasis' Don't Look Back In Anger is just as abrupt and poorly done. The song doesn't really have a cohesive second half and it seems to just fade out into nothing at one point. Finally the closing track Puck Buck Bonafide is close but ultimately not thrilling. Its an acoustic ballad that doesn't have the best songwriting and even thought Doherty has some strange and intoxicating vocals the novelty of the track can't save it and I wish something better had been done right at the end.
Despite my mixed responses to the singles there are a handful of great tracks on the album. The Stream is the sound of Peter chasing down a British Western. It has a touch of 90's in it but at its core is a good song with a very catchy instrumental that stands out on the album and just in the grander scheme of his career. This track is directly followed by Travelling Tinker which is nearly 7 minutes long but uses its time very effectively. After an extended instrumental introduction and some nursery rhyme grade lyrics it kicks off into a pretty solid song with some sharp refrains and enough changes of pace to keep it interesting. Lamentable Ballad Of Gascony Avenue is another quintessentially British tune with bouncy guitars and some tight refrains. The "her side, seaside" scheme on the hook has been stuck in my head since I first heard this project and it really sells the track. Finally Shoreleave is a pretty big track with a lot of ideas and while none of it is particularly new for the album the song is pretty enjoyable and one of the highlights for me in the second half of the project.
Even though there isn't much that is explicitly bad on the project there are some moments that don't exactly thrill me. All At Sea is filled with boyish singing and beachy instrumentals and it has a pretty fun instrumental bridge but ultimately I have some problems with the vocal mixing throughout the track and it ends completely out of nowhere after some weird whispered vocals. A Fool There Was is ultimately a track with similar issues that makes an attempt at an instrumental build but falls short when it ends at a random moment and once again features some weird vocal mixing.
Someone Else To Be is probably my least favorite song here, the strange vocalizing at the songs climax are a total miss and the interpolation of Oasis' Don't Look Back In Anger is just as abrupt and poorly done. The song doesn't really have a cohesive second half and it seems to just fade out into nothing at one point. Finally the closing track Puck Buck Bonafide is close but ultimately not thrilling. Its an acoustic ballad that doesn't have the best songwriting and even thought Doherty has some strange and intoxicating vocals the novelty of the track can't save it and I wish something better had been done right at the end.
Peter Doherty & The Puta Madres isn't going to be something we're talking about ten years from now but it could serve as a springboard for Doherty to put together something really special again. Ultimately what we have here is an inconsistent album but not one that is comfortable being boring, risks are taken throughout the project that keep it fresh and even though they don't all land perfectly I'm much happier with this as a career moment for Peter than if he had just stuck to his guns and released some watered down punk tunes. 6/10
Best Track: Who's Been Having You
For more UK rock check out my review of Catfish And The Bottlemen's The Balance here.
