See, the tricky one here is there's not really much to say about Pete Doherty himself. Tabloid villain, one of the driving forces behind the English music scene's reaction to The Strokes, addict, songwriter. He's a man so buried beneath stories of artistry and debauchery that it's seemingly impossible to comment on the real man himself. Our Iron Lung was invited to a premier of "24 Hours With Pete Doherty", an MTV documentary on the man himself, but yet another in a long line of various delves into Pete's life. We declined, but we hear it's pretty super.

Now then, Pete Doherty is set to play the Engine Shed on Tuesday 17th of March in support of his forthcoming solo album, "Grace/Wasteland". A rather swell title if ever there was one. We've been lucky enough to get hold of some songs from Pete's new album, courtesy of the folks over at Clash Magazine. Two gorgeous numbers in Lady Don't Fall Backwards and Broken Love Story, very similar to the softer parts of each Babyshambles album, further detached from his work with The Libertines. The real gem however is Last Of The English Roses, a superb clanging-drum driven rabble rouser of a tune. The Gorillaz-reminiscent intro dropping into strummed guitar and some wrenchingly impassioned lyrics. If the rest of the album manages to strike a balance between the flavour of these three tracks, we're in for a treat indeed. Pete's best output since The Libertines split? Almost certainly.

[MP3] Pete Doherty - Last Of The English Roses
[MP3] Pete Doherty - Lady Don't Fall Backwards
[MP3] Pete Doherty - Broken Love Story
[TICKETS] Buy tickets for Pete Doherty @ Engine Shed here.