Rufus Wainwright
Want One
(Dreamworks)
By: James Laczkowski - ModernRock.com
To put it simply, there are fans of Rufus Wainwright out there that would enjoy this record immensely. Rufus plays a mean grandiose Gothic piano, and gets proficient support from orchestra arrangements that sound derived from Disneyland on Independence Day. His resourceful, seasoned romantic songs exhibit a commendable melodic intricacy and his vibrato is never-ending, exhibiting a wholly unique vocal style that is strong in its conviction. But despite all that, his third release is not worth anyones time or money. There is nothing to hold on to with his latest pseudo-sonata, Want One.
It’s hard not to get swept up in his soulful intentions, but sometimes they just come out stale, overlong, tiresome, and downright ridiculous. On the new record, there are awkward lyrics that include “I leave my cell phone on vibrate for you/I tried dancing to Britney Spears.” What purpose could a song like that serve anyone but to laugh at its absurdity? As wavering and meandering as the whole package can be at times, a great voice cannot compensate for a lack of complete and utter disassociation from everything about this particular outing.
The man as a songwriter is an enigma and a half, who clearly wants to show off and force a baton down your throat. You can actually picture the guy in the studio waving around like a mad conductor, raising his arms to crescendo screaming “MORE! MORE! DAMN IT! MORE!” But the problem is there’s just a pretty picture with nothing to back it up. At one point he even sings “Pretty things/So what if I like pretty things?” It can’t all be about grand aesthetics and stream-of-consciousness chord structuring. The guy gets caught up in himself until we become as lost as he is. The only way out is to hit the eject button, and fast.
Give the guy credit for trying. “Go Or Go Ahead” is one of the few highlights that manages to build up quite nicely with its basic guitar rock configuration. There will be many folks who come across this record and proclaim it “hauntingly beautiful” but it’s a handsome act of glitziness that can’t stand on its own as a great record by any stretch of the eardrums. Want One may be a sweeping piece of work stylistically at times, but it somehow discards itself as each song reveals that it’s really nothing more than a “pretty thing.” Even a song can’t get by on its looks.
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