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The Streets
“Pranging Out (Remix) [ft. Pete Doherty]”

[2006]

He's supposedly the last rock star, Doherty. But if that was true, the one-time poet prodigy and Oxford dropout's eternal smacked-in limbo should be vicarious theater at its most reckless, a carefree audience spectacle that hides railed veins in favor of goofy suits and NME quotes of the week. Doherty's addiction isn't a Scarface high though, it's a Trainspotting crash bubbling with fear and loathing. The man's tragic, fascinating spoken-word ramblings on this remix make Mike Skinner's original junkie paranoia riffs seem like a trip to the Enchanted Tiki Room.

However hard he's feeling the convoluted pangs of prang, Doherty stays self-aware ("all this babbling is my attempt at verse"), poignant ("get it together to sing as I once sang, drinking with the old gang"), and pithily stark ("my injustice jailed and through a tabloid crossword nailed"). Let's see you slur such insight while sliding off a five-day bender. When he claims to be as "sad as sin on a pirate ship on dry land," the image resonates with trapped torment; for an artist famous for being lost in the throes, any type of escape is to risk losing the muse.

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