The poetic visions of ex-Libertines frontman Peter Doherty, bootlegged and scattered across the internet over the last few years, have finally been consolidated on the singer’s debut solo album, Grace / Wastelands. As the title suggests, the album continues Doherty’s artistic perusal of Albion, his utopian image of England, and effectively considers the reality of his vision against the shortcomings of himself and those around him.

The listener is straightaway thrown into Doherty’s utopia in the album’s tricky opener, “Arcady.” The cockney gleefully sings, “In Arcady your life trips along, pure and simple as the shepherd’s song,” which cleverly includes the listener in his vision, creating a more personalized relationship between artist and audience. “Arcady” continues, and the listener becomes more engaged, indulging in folk visions of maidens frolicking on molten greens and leisurely whiling away the lazy hours.

Yet, the folk fantasy of the first two stanzas is trumped by the protagonist’s acquisition of a self-aggrandizing knowledge. The molten greens and fair women pale and fade against a “cool self-regard” that usurps the simplicity of the scene. The singer, as if he needs to, then goes on to taunt the listener with the question “See how quickly twisted it becomes?” You can hear the disappointment in the singers voice: it’s the sad reflection of a betrayed romantic; it’s the same sober disillusionment you hear when Woody Guthrie recognized Uncle Sam’s hypocrisy in the forgotten lines of “This Land is Your Land,” asking “Is this land made for you and me?” It’s not just Doherty who is betrayed, though. The listener, who Doherty squarely places in “Arcady” in the first line, can see the molten greens turning to brown beneath him and hears the laughs of the maidens mute as the overriding lyrics burn the ear: “THAT AIN’T LOVE.”

The quaint folk sound of the first track is forgotten with the dingy, lo-fi introduction to the album’s first single, “The Last of the English Roses.” As with Doherty’s current band, Babyshambles, it’s impossible to pin down a definitive sound for the album. “1939 Returning” is introduced by war-era brass sounding as if it’s coming from a wireless on your grandma’s hearth. It’s a smart move, foreshadowing the nationalist rhetoric of the song and contributing to the mythical vision of Albion that Doherty evokes throughout Grace / Wastelands.

The most twisted incarnation of Albion presents itself in “Palace of Bone.” Doherty sings, “Well, we’ve been a long time together, time together on the snakey road” and invokes an element of nostalgia by conjuring images of his Libertine days with ex-band mate and best friend Carl Barat. Unlike “Arcady,” however, which turns grace into a wasteland, “Palace of Bone” turns a wasteland of snakey roads, bones, ebony thrones, and blackened hearts into an inclusive community for the disenfranchised. The Nick Cave style gothic riffs and syncopated acoustic guitar shift the sound of the album once more, revealing Doherty’s strong ear for a melody, as well as his poetic sensibilities. Graham Coxon, who is currently touring with Doherty and plays throughout the album, most boldly makes his presence known on this song. Feedback from his guitar precedes Doherty’s acoustic as if to warn this listener of his presence before the sound of his distorted, heavy picking clunks alongside Doherty’s bluesy acoustic riff. Coxon seems to connect with this song more than any other on the album; it’s as if his guitar charts the progress of the two travelers along the snakey roads, between the tall mountains and into the clearing where the “Palace of Bone” darkly presents itself and where the hissing of Coxon’s electric crashes down on it like rain, forcing the listener to take refuge inside.

Beside these poetic visions of Albion, Doherty delivers mysterious pieces such as “Salome” and “I Am the Rain.” “In Salome,” Doherty firmly establishes the context of the song in the first verse: a weary traveler lights a fire to relieve himself from the cold and laments his wretched situation until he becomes enraptured by a dancing form emerging from the flames: it’s Salome, the daughter of King Herod. As if it were all a dream, the traveler awakes the morning after, as Doherty sits in front of his television set. The visions of the night before stir the dust around the room, but Doherty doesn’t have the wherewithal to properly evoke them. Out of the light of the television, Salome presents herself again, this time demanding the head of 1930’s dancer, Isadora Duncan. From here, the song becomes increasingly lucid; the fluidity of Salome becomes one with the music as Coxon works calmly up and down the fret board, and a symphony of strings pour over her lust as she finally reveals her insatiability, demanding “the head of any bastard on a plate.”

As if this weren’t enough, a handful of love songs pepper Grace / Wastelands. “Lady Don’t You Fall Backwards,” which gracefully ends the album, is a forlorn glance upon a love lost. Doherty portrays a bohemian love, one of opium and tea and dressing like a “ladyboy.” Yet in true Grace / Wastelands fashion, Doherty doesn’t shy away from the less glamorous aspects of narcotic use; he sings “if we make love in the morning, I see your eyes look like two marbles in your head.” Doherty succeeds in masking the grotesquery, however, under what ultimately is the overriding sentiment of the song: “but don’t you fall backwards, come and fall into my arms.”

It seems odd to call Grace / Wastelands Peter Doherty’s debut album. Early incarnations of most of the songs can be found on sessions from The Fucked Up Years (2003-2006) and lyrics from “A Little Death Around the Eyes” can be traced back to the Libertines days. Yet, Grace / Wastelands represents a departure for Doherty, who in an effort to convey himself as a serious artist is adopting conventional artistic methods. It’s a good thing, too. The album reminds the listener of the real artist behind all the media-frenzy, which this time last year looked like it had finally beaten Doherty, and gives the songs the attention they deserve.