Rufus Wainwright - Classic or Dud?

i loved him on "wait wait don't tell me"!

Ned's pumped, guys:

Rufus' New Album: Release Dates and Tracklisting Revealed
Feb 12, 2010

Rufus Wainwright's 6th studio release, All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu, has been set for release on March 23 in Canada, April 5 in the UK and April 20 in the US. To the left is a sneak peak at the album cover, and you'll find the complete track list below. Stay tuned for more details and your first taste of the album soon.

All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu tracklisting:

1. Who Are You New York?
2. Sad With What I Have
3. Martha
4. Give Me What I Want and Give It To Me Now!
5. True Loves
6. Sonnet 43
7. Sonnet 20
8. Sonnet 10
9. The Dream
10. What Would I Ever Do With A Rose?
11. Les Feux d'artifice t'appellent
12. Zebulon

Just him and the old Joanna all the way through, no other instrumentation at all. Surprising certainly.

a *19* disc Rufus Wainwright box set you say? YOURS for $250!
http://www.rufuswainwright.com/Store/Product.aspx?id=SM001008
' a red velvet encased' box; you can probs buy some decent red velvet curtains for that price.

Right now I'm visiting Baltimore. Several years ago and the only other time I visited Baltimore, I bought Poses based on what I heard being played at the CD store I went to by the marina. It was well worth the money. I keep finding a couple goodies on each album since then but none of them have been as solid. $250 box set seems like a ridiculous idea (even though I know The Grateful Dead were able to rake in mega$$$ with their recent humongous box set).

hey Lorax, i didn't know you were in town, we should hang! which store was it, the Sound Garden?

New album. Anyone care? It may be my first Rufus purchase since 2003.

Read a good review and reserved it at the library for a trial run. If great, will end up picking it up. Haven't heard anything since "April Fools", tbh.

i too am a lapsed fan who's only heard one of the albums since Poses. so far this suonds pretty good, though. am going to try to listen to his dad's new one too since they released albums a week apart.

Want One is still one of my fave ever albums by anyone but he's not done much i've liked since weirdly. i still love him tho.
looking forward to him in upbeat mode again, the last one was teh bleakness (understandably given the subject matter).

I've listened to this once, it was better than I was expecting. He's really gone for that 70's pop sound and mostly pulled it off. The single is by far the worst thing on there.

I was a massive fan around Want One but I've just lost interest since then. Want Two was half brilliant (Art Teacher, Gay Messiah, Memphis Skyline) half rubbish (Old Whore's Diet, Little Sister) Release The Stars had one great song (Going to a Town) and a lot of songs that sounded like tired retreads of his earlier work. I can't remember a single thing about the last album. It's nice that he finally seems to have woken up.

it's interesting to me that he seems to have picked up a lot of fans mid-career since for me the first album was a front-to-back classic and it's just been a lot of hit and miss since then. this album sounds really good, though, yeah.

i'd pretty much agree with every word re his post Want One stuff there Kitchen Person. i'd like to forget Release The Stars ever happened and the less said about his embarrasing Glastonbury appearance the summer it came out the better. the last album had So Sad on it which is amazing i think but little else.

I bought the first album a few months after its release, and while it meant a great deal – I was just coming out - quite a few songs are loaded with arrangements that Wainwright's voice wasn't up to singing. Poses was a huge improvement, and the MIami date on that tour was one of the best shows I've seen in ten years. Since only 60 people came we were shouting requests and he was shooting the shit with us.

Little since 2003 has moved me.

the debut was audacious and heartfelt and overreaching just as a good debut should be. Poses has some great songs but i think maybe the pop stardom he was still somewhat plausibly aiming for that point take it in a slightly blander direction.

This radio session is good:
http://www.kcrw.com/music/programs/mb/mb041201rufus_wainwright

i just don't like his voice unfortunately. i'm working his concert next wk, wish i was excited.

xxxp yeah i've seen him maybe half a dozen times and live at his peak (just post-Want One IMO) he was one of the best things i've ever seen. the Liverpool '04 gig was like a carnival, i've never seen a seated crowd go so crazy. i didn't know you *could* go that crazy sitting down, even he was shocked.

the debut was audacious and heartfelt and overreaching just as a good debut should be.

oh yeah I agree - it's a classic B+ type debut.

i saw him in the 9:30 Club opening for lol Sean Lennon right after the debut dropped, he was a pretty solid performer right off the bat. was a bit more drunk and full of himself when i saw him again circa Poses.

he was pretty hammered and god knows what else when I saw him. Oh! He also dedicated a song to "Neil and Chris." When we looked at the balcony there were Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, in town a few days early rehearsing for their concert the next week.

he's a great live performer - holds my attention in a way he doesn't always on record.

almost every one of his albums has been just good enough, just interesting enough, containing just enough killer songs to keep my overall feelings about him positive, but all of them have suffered from stretches of...blahhhh, really. he always sounds like he wants to only dip his toe into songwriting. i do think want one is as close as he's come to a coherent statement album, though "cigarettes & chocolate milk" is my favourite song he's done.

new one sounds decent as they all do initially

My theory is he was pushed or pushed himself into recording an album before his songwriting chops had gelled. The boy had the connections (Waronker, Dreamworks, semi-famous dad).

pshhh musicians should learn on the job imo. the idea of woodshedding in private for some magical moment when you're "ready" is foreign to me.

that'd explain the first album being not quite there but not the 7 or 8 or however many it's been since!

i just don't think he's got a great sense of melody, and/or it's not something he particularly prioritises, and when he lands on one it's kind of almost as a joke

pshhh musicians should learn on the job imo. the idea of woodshedding in private for some magical moment when you're "ready" is foreign to me.

Never said this!

"not ready to record" /= "shouldn't have recorded it"

eh when you say premature "pushing" was involved it sounds negative. in any event imo his aesthetic and his sensibility as a lyricist and melodist were pretty well formed by '98 and there's not really that much of a difference between his stuff then and his stuff now, so i have no idea where you're even coming from.

Aesthetic – formed, craftsmanship – still had a way to go.

song for song Poses is the stronger record, maybe the one least afflicted with what lex called stretches of...blahhhh

Sings with his mouth shut DUD

I like his voice. He has songs in the key of me

I've noticed the stretches of blah. I liked "Little Sister" because it was stark contrast from a lot of blah, not that it's a favorite of mine. Poses is my favorite album by him

after three full listens I agree with the enthusiasm for the album. Keepers: ""Montauk," "Out of the Game," "Bitter Tears," "Jericho."

Making of:

http://www.nowness.com/day/2012/5/5/2130/rufus-wainwright-bitter-tears

I love this thing -- one of the year's best. Never thought I'd say it again about a Wainwright record.

I love this as well, and playing it continuously.

I can't quite pin down what it reminds me of exactly, but it has a nostalgic feel that takes me back to the 70s.

On first listen I was entirely underwhelmed. Much more soft rock than pop. And it's not the sort of soft rock that I find moving ('Art Teacher' was moving).

I really like this new one and I haven't even been remotely excited for him since the Want One/Two days. I love the 70s AM rock touches, I think they work pretty well. Kinda wish he'd lay off the gospel backing choirs on some of these though.

huh, had no idea that Nels Cline plays on this album, i wonder what tracks.

to have been a fly on the studio wall when rufus recorded william shatner reading sonnet 129

Enjoying the new album, maybe more than I was expecting to.

So.. this album and Release The Stars are really good, despite critical consensus that they are really not good

Are people saying the new album isn’t good? That’s a damned lie. It’s not his best but it’s an absolute pleasure to listen to.

I've always had to adjust to his voice like a car adjusting to new air tire pressure

When I was in my early 20s I had a fantasy that I would one day meet him and say "your songs start and immediately you start singing and then you continue singing right up until the moment the song ends and it doesn't always have to be this way" but I learned pretty quickly that even close friends don't listen to criticism

In my head I am scripting a short film around the above exchange

lol fgti I'm never gonna unhear that now

His first album is absolutely glorious. Haven’t really dug anything else for some reason.

Poses is its superior but I've got emotional attachments to the debut.