patrick wolf?

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

hahahhahaha this dude

Amazing music. Insane musician.

such a diva

"Take your shitty-ass music out of this city" - LAPD totally OTM.

Or San Francisco police, even.

I'm finding it difficult to believe that San Francisco would have much of a problem with a flamboyant gay pop star. Until he spits in their faces, obviously.

who the fuck is ian cohen @ pitchfork and what is he talking about?

Ian's an ex Stylus writer, I know him. I like the album much more than he does, but I have to say that I can see his points.

"The Sun Is Often Out" follows up with diminishing returns, struggling for a tune until a coda of choirboy chanting tries to make the preceding events sound like they were building towards something cathartic.

Tries, and for me, succeeds, wildly, terrifically, and heartbreakingly.

That's the thing though, isn't it? Some people are gonna be thrown down weeping by it, others are gonna find it a bit boring.

What about "Tilda Swinton as 'The Voice of Hope'"? Yeah I can see how some people might find that ridiculous. It doesn't bother me for the most part, for one thing her contribution is pretty minimal. On Theseus though I think she's incredible. The fact that she's part of the song, backing up the main vocals instead of just having a random interjection in the middle, really makes it.

I think she's terrific in Oblivion, too. Had it been anyone bit Ian I'd have had a bit of a hissy, but I know he's super reasonable and our tastes overlap a fair bit, so it's not like he'd be anti PW or the record on any kind of principle or remote aesthetic tip.

I mean, he makes solid criticisms of the record, but they seem oddly weighted.

"The Bachelor's strengths sound borne out of arrangements rather than visceral or melodic thrills"

I mean, I would disagree that there aren't melodically thrilling moments, but even if this is true the arrangements, instrumentals and composition hit me in a very visceral way. I love Bat for Lashes and adored St Vincent's first album, and for the life of me don't get his negative comparisons. Patrick's songcraft is as strong as BFL's if not moreso, and while he's not necessarily FUNNY that often (except perhaps darkly, sardonically so), I don't see how humor would serve the goals/themes of THIS record.

Like. Sure...he admires Kate Bush and is kind of self-serious and uses a lot of choirs, but what happened to taking a record on its own terms? If part of the joy of this is that it treats an album as a cohesive whole....address that, maybe?

Just got back from seeing Patrick play the Mod Club in Toronto. Wow. Incredible set...the boy was in top form. Unfortunately, the monitors kept fucking up and halfway through the set he pulled a classic Wolf move and stormed off stage for ten minutes in a huff while they fixed the technical problems. Came back on wearing next to nothing and gave us another 45 minutes or so of music, including a rendition of Vulture that brought him into the crowd, where he stayed for Battle as a bonus, moshing with the entire crowd and passing around the microphone. Nothing performed from the first album, but the other three got covered fairly well.

Intense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY6hSw-BbQ0

.......

"Hard Times" is quite epic, innit?

first two albums - ott yes but quite heartfelt and interesting and clever.

everything since? pretty awful. and he's turned into such a celeby entourage twatty nme diva i can't go back to the old records anymore. THANKS.

LOL. Throwing motion reminds me of Tom Cruise throwing the dog tags at the end of "Top Gun."

Fucking awesome last night at the Palladium.

Hard Times got practically the entire audience on its feet and down the front dancing.

Damn you Britishers and your ability to see such concerts. Who ended up being the special guests?

Florence (of & The Machine fame) and Alec Empire.

i can't get enough of this homo.

Do they sell this t-shirt at his shows yet?

;)

"but he's not gay!"

huh

His boyfriend's gay.

lol

Florence was there? WTF. In what capacity? That's...sort of amazing. And v. unexpected - I would have figured Bishi or something like that.

She dueted with him on the title track of his new album; it's Eliza Carthy on the record.

Bishi was unhappily at home with some kind of horrible lurgey.