ITP: Pete Doherty back in action

Another Hotline tidbit, this one blogolicious: Fresh off his 30th birthday last week, baby faced bad boy Pete Doherty is back in the news. And here’s a shocker: this time it’s actually about his music.

The former guitarist/singer of UK indie-punk luminaries the Libertines, considered by some to be the world’s Last Living Rock Star, releases his first solo album this week, “Grace/Wastelands.” In a turn of cheap promotion, fans can hear it now streaming for free on MySpace.

Remember when he would simply promote new material with an arrest for drug possession? Those were the good old days.

“Grace/Wasteland” is marked as Doherty’s first official solo album, though he’s filled in the period since the Libertines’ untimely-but-inevitable demise in 2004 with two largely forgettable albums under the Babyshambles moniker. Understandably, he’s failed to produce anything as lethal as the first and only two Libertines albums, which gave the UK its early-2000s answer to the Strokes and made careers of entertainment journalists from London to Newcastle. (Vanyanote: Mind you, I fucking LOVE the Libertines.)

Early listens show Doherty is in full singer-songwriter mode with “Grace/Wastelands,” and if he’s got anything left in the tank besides smack controversy and tabloid scandals, now’s the time to prove it.