5/10

Over the years, Pete Doherty has given himself to us in a number of guises. Whether he's heading up The Libertines, Babyshambles or simply going solo, the frontman is an ever-evolving monster of British indie music. And while he seemed to have fallen off the radar in recent times, he returns with his latest endeavour as the namesake behind the new group The Puta Madres. With only a minor amount of buzz behind him for this project, it seems that the fixation we have had over him has finally begun to falter, leading this record to be as free and experimental as he desires.

But from the very start, it feels that Pete Doherty has lost much of the sheer reckless gusto that many fell in love with from his earlier career. Opting many for a more mellowed direction here, The Puta Madres' debut album seems to have more in common with a folk-pop aesthetic than anything else. Meandering from one swooning serenade to the next, this new collection pictures the once intense frontman as a sombre and heartfelt individual, something Pete Doherty just doesn't have the presence for, and instead leads this group down a confused and hard-to-engage series of lacklustre indie releases.

Although we can always commend him for trying something new, but this first full-length just lacks the intrigue to get us to listen to it more than once. While it does have some beautifully written compositions, it comes across as more of a offbeat jam session than a finished record, making it hard to really appreciate what Doherty has tried to make here.