Rufus Wainwright - Want One
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Free Music Notes for Want One
Free Music Review: Breaktaking, my album of the year...
Hit: 5 Stars
Simply Breaktaking...No I don't say that often about albums.
Rufus Wainwright's sound is maturing and the instrumentation on this album really shows it beautifully! The arrangements build up to such a amazing, lush sound that I makes you think "wow, he knows how to write lyrics AND music!" This album was made after he went through an immense depression...something that most of us go through at some points....so listening to this album is like building yourself back up, its themes take you through the little things in life that make it so complex. Seriously this album is my saving grace, certain songs have such a POSITIVE feel that you want to open the curtains and scream "Hello Day!" On to the songs......
1. OH WHAT A WORLD--- This song starts out the album with a mellow look at like and how great it is.
2. I DONT KNOW WHAT IT IS--- This is the first song I heard before the album came out, and let me tell you, its soooo catchy and it brightens your day like no other song out there today. Exceptional!
3. VICOUS WORLD-- A tender tune about what life can throw at you and how we always gotta deal.
4. MOVIES OF MYSELF-- The music in this song is one of a kind, very upbeat and cool, its just the one song where I Don't get the words...
5. PRETTY THINGS--- This is a solo song with just Rufus and the piano, builds up slowly and provides a tender look of the little things in a relationship.
6. GO OR GO AHEAD-- This song is another great song, it just makes everything go up, it makes you want to take all the drama in your life and face it head on. The soothing background vocals in the first half of the song build up beautifully to the Incredibly empowering chorus. AWESOME!
7. VIBRATE-- A simple arrangement with simple lyrics about wanting that one person to just fricken call you! Great mellowness.
8. 14TH STREET--t The album goes straight up again with this cheery anthem about the break of hearts. The kid like singing might shock you at first, but just realize what a great song this is because of its mere playfulness about a painful subject.
9. NATASHA---A simply breathtaking song, one of the best on the album. Its instrumentation with organs is simply gorgeous and the lyrics touch you in the most perfect way.
10. HARVESTER OF HEARTS-- Another Self empowerment song but more mellow. A song about soulmates, Rufus' vocals are perfect on this song, especially when the song brings in the jazz flairs in his voice. Right after, a BEAUTIFUL duet between a Trumpet and a Trombone make your heart drop....this part of the song is simply BRILLIANT!
11. BEAUTIFUL CHILD-- Simply powerful, another empowerment song that makes you want to forget all your problems and look forward to the future. Once again, the brass parts on this song are amazing. GREAT!
12. WANT-- The title track, a low key song about what were all looking for.
13. 11:11 Good all around song, just doesn't stick out from the thers too well.
14. DINNER AT EIGHT-- Great song about sitting down and evaluating someone in your life. A slow tempo song about reevaluating someone in your life. Amazing end to a FANTASTIC album.
WANT ONE is Rufus' best album yet, it shows how truly brilliant he is at songwriting AND composing and the sound he has at this point is sooo unique that the world must here it NOW. It has to be said that this is the kind of album that many artists (Justin Timberlake) WISH they could make. Where Rufus' second album, POSES had so many different styles, emotions, and moods this album is more focused and sticks to about 3 or 4 different styles, but trust me it works and the album is a WORK OF ART, ALBUM OF THE YEAR, BUY IT!
Free Music Review: An Instant Classic
Hit: 5 Stars
Very rarely do you hear music that has this depth and arrangement.
"Want One" is reminiscent of Queen's "A Night at the Opera". Lush vocal tracks and so many of them that there's a new level of discovery with every listen. "I Don't Know What it Is" is pure brilliance. A song about soul-searching and hope this masterpeice is thickly layered with 4 or five guitar parts that change during verse and chorus and continue to build, harmonies in fifths and vocal pads that rival any Broadway arrangement. String pads creep in in the b-section, "so I knock on the door and I am on the train, going God knows where to"... a virtual train ride that takes you to a different emotion with every section..the middle break is truly like the sun breaking through the clouds as it build to a gorgeous crescendo..."I was hoping the train was my big number" ....re-sampled vocal parts that are layered so deeply and placed in the oddest places..."...dunaway by the crossing" metered so strangely, they almost sound like another instrument. Finally Rufus begs "...you gotta do it, you gotta be there...." with a warm delay on his voice that is just dreamlike.
"Go or Go ahead" is got to be one of the best songs I've heard in 20 years, by anyone. Period. A sublte and steady build starts with acoustic and voice with the occasional harmonic on the guitar... a backward guitar creeps in, heavenly vocal inflections on single words...then a weird "doo doo vocal part" sounds like angels on LSD, but if they werent enough, there's even another vocal part under that. Chunky guitar starts to creep in, then finally the crash begins...steel-eyed vampires of love....Rufus sings his bloody heart out in this song...the line "surprise me"...is done with about 38 vocal tracks...The middle 8 on this one is mind-blowing.
It's almost too much to grasp the first ten times...when you finally understand what he's doing, you just can't believe the work this man and Marius Devries put into this album.
"Natasha"...makes me weep every time I hear it. I'm not afraid to admit that. It just kills.
"Beautiful Child", sounds like it should be named just that... sometimes titles and lyrics don't match, this song makes me feel young & cleansed like I'm viviting a carnival.
Again, Rufus mesmerizes with vocal arrangements. Vocals that emulate a rollercoaster with their sweeping motion followed by horns that sound like your at the circus...you can smell youth, cotton candy, but all in a bizarre way. The carefully crafted lyrics are just intense at times. I've found myself sitting with headphones on and weeping with emotion.
"Dinner at Eight", the final track, is a story of Rufus' lifelong struggle with his father. His leaving Rufus for the road when he was younger, leaving him in the ..."drifting white snow". This is a bittersweet tale of a boy's love for his father, no matter how much he was hurt by him. The haunting string section makes you feel the blustery and stirring snow being swept up around you...Rufus' heartfelt delivery tugs at every heartstring, and just when he seems to have some resolve, that his father loves him in his older self, he revisits the first stanza and re-affirms that they may always have some differences.
I can't say enough about this album.
You'd be out of your mind not buy this. Buy seven copies and give them to friends you really care about, and who know their s---t about music. They will thank you like all of my friends did. And make sure you do not copy this album for anyone. Please buy them and support this great artist.
Free Music Review: Want One
Hit: 5 Stars
Rufus Wainwright - Want One (www.rufuswainwright.com)"The statement is basically, 'I'm your knight in shining armor. I'm here to save you from Linkin Park." (Rufus Wainwright, referring to the cover of his new album, which features him in King Arthur-style metallics)
The new Wainwright album opens up with what sounds like a thousand Rufus' humming what becomes the vocal melody for the track "Oh What a World." It is, in fact, Rufus's own voice looped over itself well over a hundred times. how he'll duplicate it in concert, one never can tell. I believe he said something about cloning himself. Which only leaves the problem of where he'll put the full orchestra...
Which is a central theme to Want One. With vocals that alternate from delicate hush to commanding falsetto, all backed up by the biggest orchestra one could expect, Wainwright's new disc is full of the kind of triumphant declaration that is sometimes only found in the best of musicals.
Not to say that the album itself plays out like some campy Broadway production, but it does have sincere star-quality. Rufus sings with the kind of broken-heart honesty that is best conveyed by a solemn piano ballad (see his previous works, the self-titled and Poses albums), yet is preformed with serious attention to instrumentation. The combination works, with unbelievable results. The infectious lead tracks, "Oh What a World" and "I Don't Know What It Is" yank the listener face forward into Rufus' catty and, at long last, sober world. His soon-to-be-well-known addiction to Crystal Meth is a constant undercurrent to the albums tracks, as is his search for true love. This is best seen on tracks like "Go or Go Ahead", which may very well be the track that finally makes Rufus more than an artist who's chiefly admired by other artists.
One of the albums most stand-out tracks is a song called "11:11". Debuted nearly two years ago, this is a song that Rufus began writing before September 11th, 2001, and completed afterward. It conveys his feelings while simultaneously avoiding the trappings of "tribute singles" that have been released since. One of the more subtle lines in the track shows off Rufus lyrical talents, which are prevalent throughout all his releases, if not moreso with Want One. Woke up this morning/and something was burning/realised that everything really does happen in Manhattan... Other tracks such as "Vicious
World" lament for what is somewhat a loss of innocence and desire for companionship that Rufus uses as a common theme for the entire album. Overall, the CD leaves the listener satisfied in the sense that yes, there are dark moments, some incredibly undesirable, but perhaps things will be O.K. after all.
With Rufus, there are no over-produced moments that seek to stun the listener into submission. Rufus is lulling you to sleep, he's opening your eyes, he's teaching you a lesson. If Want One doesn't become the Rufus Wainwright album that brings him even more global acclaim, then we are truly citizens of a most Vicious World.
Free Music Review: Poperatic Masterwork
Hit: 5 Stars
Rufus Wainwright's opening song "Oh What a World" has simple lyrics which, as they repeat, build layer after layer into fugue-like bombast. It stresses from the start that this album is abouts sonics. It will have a dense complex sound and a cleanly produced real orchestra throwing harps and horns into the mix."I Don't Know What It Is" starts slow and builds to a crescendo as well. By its finale, it sounds like Phil Spector movie music. Wainwright and his producer Marius Devries parlay this excess into camp charm.
"Vicious World" is a romantic lament backed by a vibraphone from a Mirwais producers album or a chill-out disc.
"Pretty Things" is just Rufus and his piano proclaiming his Wildean aestheticism.
"Go or Go Ahead" starts with a lovely Wainwright vocal over acoustic guitar and builds to a blistering rock 'n' roll climax--at least by tuneful Rufus standards. Shades of 70s bands like Queen or Boston: power chords and creamy harmonies. A masterpiece of production, it's one of the album's best songs.
"Vibrate" is a bit throwaway but it's clever fun.
"14 Street" ushers in the album's finest moment where Tin Pan Alley melody, saloon piano, and witty poetic lyrics come together in a tasty mix.
"Natasha" is pleasant but unexceptional.
"Harvester of Hearts" may be the best vocal on the album. Rufus' voice, in its higher register, sounds delicate and expressive. The song is lovely too, though it repeats the word "people" too many times.
"Beautiful Child" is a nu-gospel stand-out that reads like a Blake poem. Again, dense busy production makes for a layered treat that may requires headphones to fully appreciate.
"Want" and "11:11" are slower songs with the occasional lyrical highlight, but they're not among my favorites here.
The album concludes with "Dinner at Eight," another contender for the album's finest moment. A beautiful melody wed to lyrics of David-and-Goliath combat, it's both a father-son love letter and piece of oedipal hate mail. The orchestra is used to great effect here, especially the harp whose ripples mimic "the drifting white snow" of the lyrics.
Rufus Wainwright, along with Ryan Adams, Beck, an underrated Joseph Arthur, and a revived Tori Amos, are the singer/songwriters to watch in the new millenium. Rufus has kicked it up a notch with "Want One." I wait eagerly for his promised sequel "Want Two."
Free Music Review: Go or go ahead and try me . . .
Hit: 5 Stars
This album, I must say, takes several listenings-to. The first time around -- especially if you're not familiar with his voice -- you might remember the repetition in "Oh What A World", and possibly the hook to "Go or Go Ahead". The second time, you can start differentiating between songs. Not that they sound even remotely the same, but it is a problem. By the third or fourth time -- especially if you listen to the commentary available if you buy the album -- you realize, these are amazing songs.From a musician's standpoint, his songs are incredibly interesting. Most pop songs have limited harmonic and melodic palates -- these, which have been called Broadway-esque and popera, do not. I'm half expecting a musical theatre type to show up with one of these songs as his or her audition piece. To me, the songs don't seem so much 'written' as composed. It isn't just the production, either -- there are songs on previous albums ("In a Graveyard", "Danny Boy") that I could point to and remark on the care taken with elements of the songs. The fact that he sees himself maybe someday composing an opera also resonates with this. "Harvester of Hearts", while intended merely as an amusing quasi-lounge tune, is nonetheless well-done: if someone had played it for me and told me it was from a musical (Kander & Ebb style), I would have believed them. "Go Or Go Ahead" is an apocalyptic crescendo, with quotes from Debussy ("Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum", a piano piece), and lyrics that are truly frightening in implications. (His quote on the song is, "Don't ever do crystal meth. I already wrote the song about it, so you don't have to go through it, okay?")
As to his voice, it's described as a scratchy bari-tenor. Yes, it's a bit scratchy. Maybe even grating at the beginning. Possibly somewhat out of tune. The more you listen to this album, or any of his albums, you realize a few things: one, that you don't care about scratchiness; two, that if he is actually out of tune, it's 'interestingly out of tune' and you don't really care anyway; and three, that he's had vocal training. (See the very end of "Vibrate" for that.) And not just from his mother. He manages to be quite expressive in many different styles.
Emotionally honest, powerful, campy, lyrical -- I have to say, it holds together as an album better than the previous two. So if you weren't sure the first time you listened to it, try again. And again.