Rufus Wainwright has battled rehab, famous parents, and his sexuality, and melded all his troubles into what might be the best album of his career.
Wainwright is back with an album of operatic proportions. With his third album “Want One,” he is again proving himself as one of the premier modern songwriters.
It’s clear when the album opens with Wainwright’s voice accompanied by lush horns, “Want One” is more advanced than the rest of the current musical landscape.
The beauty of the album is further reflected in the speed it took to create it. In just six months Wainwright constructed “Want One” and its follow up.
“Want One” originally was intended to be a double album with just the title “Want.” The album instead was divided into two installments.
Wainwright describes “Want Two” as being a more daunting and operatic album.
This does not mean “Want One” does not have its share of Broadway style moments. Wainwright often sounds as though he is starring in a musical about boys, love, and posh living.
As gay entertainment is seemingly everywhere, Wainwright could be primed to enter the mainstream. If audiences needed a musical equivalent to “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” they could find it in him.
His homosexuality is not stereotypical or even brazen. Wainwright is openly gay and his songs deal with love in that fashion. He is not singing about going to a gay bar or redecorating. Wainwright simply sings about his life with the sharp wit often associated with gay men, something he does very well.
For years his music has gained critical praises. His self-titled debut, and its follow-up “Poses,” had fans and critics in adoration of his keen ability to mold a song with his voice and his piano.
Wainwright has a gift for lyrics, knowing just the right time to sneak in a cultural reference to relate his grandiose themes back down to earth. His use of comparisons to Greek mythology are balanced with references to New York and Britney Spears.
This album is denser than his previous efforts. Wainwright clearly let his mind wander out to the further reaches of his musical talents.
Wainwright executes intense orchestration. From trombones to oboes to vocals layered as many as 350 times, the album is spectacularly crafted.
Rufus Wainwright might get his knowledge of the craft from his musical family. His father is the folk singer Loudon Wainwright III and his mother is the Canadian pianist Katie McGrarrigle. His mother makes an appearance on the album, playing banjo.
“There’s such a musical dynamic among my mother, my father and me. My relationship with my mother is very intense, ferocious, even more so than with my father,” Wainwright said on his Web site.
Prior to recording “Want One” Wainwright checked himself into rehab for problems with alcohol and uppers.
“I took a lot of crystal meth, Special K and Ecstacy all at once. I went blind for an hour,” Wainwright told Rolling Stone in an interview.
Rehab served as the catalyst for the “Want” records. Much of the material was written during his stint in rehab. And in a fever of sober creativity once out of rehab he recorded the 30 songs that would become “Want One” and “Want Two.”
The result is fabulously crafted songs such as the beautiful jazzy track “Harvester of Hearts” and the gloriously upbeat “14th Street.”
Wainwright is a songwriter whose music is timeless and accessible. His sound may vary from the current musical trends but it will stick around long after those trends are gone.
Wainwright has wrestled his demons and now seems more at peace with himself. On the track “Beautiful Child” he sings “I feel like a beautiful child again.”
Listeners should believe him – Rufus Wainwright and his music are surely some of the most beautiful things around.