Slighcarp and Grimshaw

I am desperately heartbroken by this new travesty of a Rufus Wainwright album. I can hardly bring myself to write this post, though I have railed on and on for a couple weeks now about how the album is a massive dissapointment. First track of this new disappointment is in fact “Do I dissapoint you?”

Um, the answer is an unequivocable yes, Rufus, love of my yesteryears.

Take a gander at the picture up there: old Rufus, totally over the top and naked, but a restrained kind of naked; and then new Rufus, wearing lederhosen embroidered with his name and even bigger, gaudier rings, which is, despite the “drama,” a big yawn. That is pictorial evidence of why this new Rufus is headed–where is he headed? Is it the wrong direction? I hate when people are all, “The new album is totally different, and [fill in band/artist name] really isn’t any good anymore.” In fact, I pretty much lambasted the Rufus fans who were lambasting Poses when it came out for this very reason–also for the reason that Poses is a really great pop album.

Oh, what was that I said? Pop. That’s right, Rufus Wainwright writes great pop songs. A couple listen throughs to Release the Stars, however, could have you convinced otherwise. Nary a pop hook anywhere. Even Want 2 had some pop hooks– “Crumb by Crumb,” anyone? Rufus, even a single crumb of pop-hook deliciousness here would have been appreciated. By me.

Believe me, it’s not my dislike of big, over-the-top orchestrations and arrangements that is turning me off this new “big drama” Rufus–someone will have to pry my XTC Apple Venus and Sufjan Stevens Illinoise from my cold, dead hands before I will disparage their artistic merits and undeniable listenability. And, for that matter, my Poses and Want One and Rufus Wainwright.

Mostly, it seems to me, that someone needs to say a little bit of NO to Rufus Wainwright. He’s writing an opera? Let me say it, here on this lowly blog: NO! Write pop songs. Little pop songs with tack pianos and strange pop/metal/Rufus-y tributes to Led Zeppelin. I don’t think he needs someone to say no to his production impulse of bigger is better–just no to him recording songs that are boring–boring melodies, no hooks, boring lyrics.

If you were looking for an intelligent, reasoned argument about why this new Rufus album is not making good on the promise of late 90s Rufus, read the Pitchfork review. My sixteen-year-old heart is broken and rant is all I got.

As for me, I am going to keep listening to Poses. And I am probably going to bury Release the Stars, salt the earth, and pray the opera thing fails hardcore (unlike this album, which seems to be inciting in critics across the land some sort of mass hysteria that leads them to believe it’s good) so he writes more tight pop songs swathed in big arrangements.