patrick wolf?

:D

I kind of miss that ukelele pop phase he was on for like...a minute and a half. And yeah, still one of the most compelling musicians, I was just observing that there's been an expansion of stuff-extraneous-to-music in recent years that didn't really exist before and seems to colour a lot of people's reactions one way or the other.

thought that song was okay, pretty good by english haircut-indie standards

Fucking genius.

I love this guy so much.

it's growing on me. production and arrangement are amazing. the best parts of lycanthropy (beats) and wind in the wires (strings and instruments and song structure) with the production glisten of the magic position. the songs themselves will need a bit more time to grow on me. besides the incredible Hard Times, Oblivion and Vulture it's all quite slooow. (not a bad thing, but generally he has a bit more uptempo stuff, even when he's being a total downer). the bachelor is gorgeous though. also thickets and theseus.

the only moment that is a bit much for me to take on first listen is the beginning of who will? which is so overly explicitly about teh buttsecks in such a non-metaphorical way that it makes me giggle. i mean, "who will penetrate the tightening muscle" is a bit ridiculous beneath the guy who's written teignmouth. (unless the tightening muscle is his heart. in which case my mind is stuck in the gutter.) interested to see how this will translate to the stage. not sure where it stands in relation to the other three albums, but i think he's done it again.

who will penetrate the tightening muscle

"but he's not GAY!" uhhh

Hahaha, he is apparently with a bloke now, aye, BUT a; he did definitely go out with a female gallery curator for a couple of years, and b; this record's about being a miserable singleton, so he probably does mean his aorta rather than his sphincter.

Blackdown = Kate Bush, yes?

AND FUCK ME HERE COMES JIG OF LIFE

I could really do without the Titanic woodwinds.

I'm willing to forgive those for... I was going to say his voice, which is absolutely extraordinary, but, y'know, I'll forgive those for EVERYTHING ELSE pretty much.

Mixing / arrangements are fucking extraordinary.

Mixing / arrangements are fucking extraordinary

yes. while i am totally enamoured of his low-fi lycanthropy beginnings, and even though the album release is self-funded, you can tell that he produced and recorded the tracks on a major label budget, because the depth and the clarity and the everything, really.

Yeah. This is totally great. And Vulture was a complete red herring. For all his talk of Atari Teenage Riot and Alec Empire collaborations, this album is far folkier than most things he's done recently. It's has a very Celtic vibe to it - hearkens back to the entire tone of Wind in the Wires. The electronica edge is back in full force too, even on the big melodrama-y balladry. I'd put money on Vulture and Battle being the only two songs that Empire had a hand in, and while they're both quite good in their own ways, they don't necessarily gel with the rest of The Bachelor, which really wallows in Patrick's singledom.

Best new element added to his palette: the fiddles and recorders and the war drums in the second half of Blackdown. And Eliza Carthy's vocals in the title track which have this total air of mystery and otherworldliness to them. 'The Bachelor' is what I think 'Magpie' was trying to capture on the last album, but never quite managed to.

ok, this is awesome. i even like the single, without having to watch that horrible video.

he's finally been able to re-create what i loved so much about lycanthropy. i was about to give up on this guy.

i gave up on him already but i'm dead keen to hear this now. lycanthropy was always my fave.

you will enjoy this.

i can't get enough of this homo. who is with me?
― mc (mcutt), Friday, January 23, 2004 4:19 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

finally, i feel like i did on january 23, 2004 again.

fuck me this is fab. I was about to give up on him too.

This album sounds big and expansive in a way I thought The Magic Position should've sounded but only occasionally succeeded at.

On a big-hi-fi with properly positioned speakers this is going to be awesome; so much soundstaging and clever use of stereo.

This guy and Dan Snaith have probably made my favorite music of the decade. Maybe add Spoon in there, and I'd say Bark Psychosis too if Graham had done more than one album.

The woodwind's less Titanic than Lord of the Rings, perhaps.

either way lo-fi woodwinds >>> hi-fi woodwinds.

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/wolfcov452.jpg

loooooooooool.

california love

My saddle's waiting, come and jump on it.

http://www.diskull.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/patrick-wolf.jpg

The kids on the Wolfboard are complaining of flat production, wtf?!

I love this dude.

Listened to this a couple of times, it's good. Maybe really good. A bit lacking in fun maybe - ok there's Vulture and Battles but they're amongst the weakest tracks imo - but it aims way higher than the last two and he pretty much hits the mark. I don't like the title track though - I love his voice but it seems he always manages to pick guest vocalists whose voices I hate.

love the guest vocalists. who is the raspy voiced one?

Wikipedia says Eliza Carthy but that can't be right.

"Pitchfork Media, to the contrary, is expected to lambaste the album as pretentious, self-indulgent and unoriginal."

Eliza Carthy is on the title track; Tilda Swinton does the narration type bits.

I tort it was a fella

u tort rong

I tort it were a feller too first.

"The Sun is Often Out" added to the list of beautiful songs I can't listen to very often 'cause they leave me blubbing in my cornflakes.

i don't really like the tilda swinton bits. i like her, but on the record she seems out of place and contributes to that whole lack of fun mentioned earlier. i need to listen to the record some more though. it might grow on me.

I'm listening to this on the basis of Nick's Tweets about it and it's strangely fascinating ... I'm trying to work at the same time so I'm not really paying that much attention, but Who Will? has actually stopped me in my tracks and made me think, OK, this is really bloody good.

So. Thanks, Nick!

Seeing him in two weeks. Last time he was in Montreal, he and Bishi and the band put on quite the spectacle. Given how much interviews have stressed the amount of work he's put into the stage-show this time around, I'm genuinely curious to see what we get.

Haven't heard this guy yet but judging from the album covers he seems to be dabbling in something very "new-romantic"...which begs the question, why isn't Simon Reynolds aaaall over this?!

Will have the check this out on my own...

He's not really new romantic, I'm afraid... more Kate Bush with bits of Aphex Twin.

Aye, but it was the haircut etc that put me off to begin with :)

This is a fucking awesome record.

The percussion & talking & stuffnoise in the background of the title track is a field recording of the Northampton Conker Festival, apparently, some proper mad folk thing with black-faced women banging sticks in a fertility dance.

Vaguely frustrating that more ILM people aren't going FUCKING WOW at this awesome Kate Bush / folk / techno / high-camp orchestral drama pop.

i detect new romanticism in all patrick's work. why don't you?

Fucking love the Wolf boy. His quality control is not always 100% but he is a jaw-dropper.

La Roux is so obviously his replacement in Polydor's eyes, given that she's done exactly what they wanted him to do. And she even looks like him.

Anyway for Sick Mouth. Obviously the boy Wolf has just been coming back from some hellish K-peppered night out in Vauxhall and stumbles across an early morning Status Quo TV appearance. This is fucking mint (sorry if this is upthread, I don't have time to read all of it):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inyJss9GlRE

Ah yes, I remember that incident... odd young man.

arrested in san francisco lol

lol
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/10/partrick-wolf-arrested