Disc reviews: Pete Doherty – « Felt Better Alive »
Pete Doherty’s astonishing lifestyle conversion is now well known and has been welcomed by the headlines (see, for example, in The Guardian About how he « switched crack to camembert »). But he who was once the British pop’s most messiest little brother not only seems to be in a fairly harmonious place in life in 2025, but also manages to maintain a high musical level.
« Felt Better Alive » is the fifth record in a fine and underestimated solo catalog, and in some ways takes place at the latest Frédéric lo collaboration « The Fantasy Life of Poetry and Crime » ended. But the thoughts also go to Libertine’s comeback record « All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade » From last year. A record with tangible peaks (« Night of the Hunter », « Shiver »), but where the company Doherty/Carl Barât unfortunately did not cope all the way.
Here, too The singles out. The very best, almost epic « The Day the Baron Died », is even a heated version of Libertines « Baron’s Claw ». The title track is characterized by a traditional and effective drive. And so we have irresistible « calvados » that starts everything – has anyone ever sung so captivating about the manufacture of apple burning?
Sure, sometimes it gets stubbornly comfortable – on a stubbornly trampled « Ed Belly », and « Finge », he makes himself older than he is. But the fact is that Pete Doherty takes it all in goal, in a pretty impressive way. He begins everything with proclaiming « I Give My Nights Up For Old Songs, Sound Better Alive / I Gave My Life Over to Old Songs, Sound Better Alive » and on the whole the album is sympathetic folk rock pop.
Lisa O’Neill-guest and cinematic « Poca Mahoney’s » can be several different songs without even watching in two minutes. « Océan » stuck nicely with compelling desperation, about heaven and sea. The French influences – Doherty now live in Normandy – are most evident at « Prêtre de la more » (the sea priest, translated). There are songs that grow on one, songs that become pleasant company.
The album appears as a collection of fancy and well -written postcards with everyday efforts from the other side of the English Channel, signed a hat -bearing rock troubadour in the middle of life.
Best track: « The Day The Baron Died »
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