961. Want Two - Rufus Wainwright

I always get the Wainwrights confused, struggling to recall which ones are old timers, and which ones are new. That's the difficulty with singer-songwriters who major on acoustic guitar; they are timeless, in the best and worst sense of the word. To assist you, Rufus is young(ish), with this album being released in 2004 - Loudon, his father, is the old-timer, and Martha is Rufus's younger sister. There, Wainwright family tree done (yes, I know Rufus's mother is also a singer-songwriter, but her surname is different).

The opening is about as dense a start to a solo album as you can expect - not many artists would go for an epic, reverb-fuelled cover of Agnus Dei. It is more straight forward (on the whole) from then on, with The One You Love a very rhythm driven pop song, and Little Sister a harpsichord and string-driven song of mourning - Ok, so it's not really that straight forward. Indeed, it is the complexity and ambition of this album that sets it apart from others. Lyrically it is also bold, Gay Messiah is a vivid, yet highly compelling, depiction of Jesus' second coming as a voracious homosexual; I'm sure the church enjoyed that one.

The main thing that struck me about this album was how like Thom Yorke Rufus sounds. It isn't all the time, but when you notice it, it is hard to ignore. Further to this, one track sounds distractingly like Elbow, and that made it hard to focus on the music in and of itself for the first few days.

When I did, I ended up really enjoying the album. It wasn't too cool for me, as I'd first thought, it just took a while to work as a cohesive whole for me. That isn't to say there aren't weak tracks, but the overall overshadows these occasional misses. The sublime Art Teacher, which is as fine a capturing of youthful infatuation as has ever been captured, still has space for some witty observations; that's pretty impressive.

Chloe's album rating: 7
Chloe's favourite track: 8. Gay Messiah
Olly's album rating: 7
Olly's favourite track: 5. The Art Teacher

Next Week is 853. Supa Dupa Fly by Missy Elliott.