patrick wolf?

Here is a radio interview I did with him a while ago: http://www.sr.se/p3/diverse/appdata/pop/sounds/popB.ram
(the Wolf part starts after app. 20 minutes). (It is only online until Monday so hurry if you are interested. Oh, and some of it is in Swedish. But it should make pretty good sense nontheless.)

The first time I saw him he seemed really uncomfortable at the gig, but this time round he seemed much happier, even when the power went. I expected a more electronicy sound from what I've read, but he didn't have his laptop with him.. so it was just very acoustic, and quite beautiful

http://pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/w/wolf_patrick/lycanthropy.shtml

The NME gave him the "big" review (2 pages) this week which was vaguely surprising. And The Libertine was top 67 smash. I think perhaps hurrah, profilewise.

not enough electronics/dance stuff on the new one, however he's stepped up the imagery and thematic elements. also, the pace and tempo on the new one doesn't change enough which leads to not being able to really differentiate the songs. i think "landsend" (the last song) is the best moment on the album.

i also like your kate bush comparison though, i never thought of it that way.

This is his rural/pastoral londonescape record, I guess maybe it's Tiger Bay to Lycanthropy's So Tough, or, something. He seems WAY more self-assured and less inclined to shrieky bits too. Which isn't automatically an improvement, because that was great, but I suppose it makes it an easier listen. In terms of coastal magic yay stuff it pisses all over the new British Sea Power which has seemingly been designed to filter out every last fragment of wide-eyed wonder and stuff.

Tristan is industrial-lite pophit in waiting, there isn't anything impenetrable about the album at all, he will be star, now, perhaps.

Regarding Patrick Wolf, I've only heard "Ghost Song". But what a great song.

i haven't heard wind in the wires yet, but i'm really looking forward to do so.
lycanthropy: best album i've heard in 2004

I'm still listening to the album. It's probably been the most longterm obsession for an album since my 2 months obsession with Chutes Too Narrow.

But, I still like it very much, it is ideal for middle of night or similar. And he is still great, very. I think I just want him to go back to making very shiny smeary pop songs, which is what I tend to want everyone to do.

Definitely, there's not a bad track on it but it's the same three or four that I find myself really anticipating and constantly having in my head. The title track being the main one. A lot of my favourite bits are in the little brief sketches between songs as well.

The only problem was that I'm starting to think less and less of those songs, which all seem to build up and then go nowhere.

Also: "I've just come back from a show, where the PA blew up (kinda) and he kept playing." -- jellybean (jellybea...), March 4th, 2004.

This happened last night - a year and a bit on!! Sort it out, son! The mix was horrible at last night's gig too (and this is coming from someone who doesn't generally notice these things). Patrick could happily sing WITHOUT his microphone half the time, let alone one cranked up to 11.

"Paris": http://s35.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2DOSD2NE92DCE1GKDV7FKWUUDS

"Bloodbeat":
http://s33.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2BP9EXXLB4MWY3EZ3HKBVUZBIP

I think I still love these more than anything from the second, although it is relatively close. Both of these are arguably more fizzy than anything off WITW though, so, they win, for me.

He's absolutely spell-binding live, if you get chance to see him at a decent, small venue.

I finally tracked down a copy of 'Lycanthropy' and now concur with Alex in Doncaster. 'Wind in the Wires' is still great but I think I prefer the demonic shriekfests and skittery beats, thanks.

And yes, he is annoyingly pretty.

But not before I suppress the irrational urge to slap him as I always do with unbelievably good-looking (and don't they know it!) guys.

"Hi!"

"Hi Roz! Don't hit me!"

Besides, I don't have any ridiculously good-looking male friends. Maybe that's the problem. Hmm...

the more i listen to both lycanthropy and wind in the wires, the more i love them.

x-post - gutted.

I think The Magic Position is my most anticipated album of 2006.

It all sounds more than a little suspicious to me. Whatever it was it came on to him suddenly, I heard the Barbican gig was masterly. I smell a rat(catcher).

new single posted on his new site and on myspace, but i am mightily irritated that only the first minute or so of it is available! what gives?!

but hey, it's a really promising minute. it's called "accident and emergency" and it's much bouncier than most anything off "lycanthropy" or "WITW".

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b236/BeautifulBoyz/4.jpg
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b236/BeautifulBoyz/5.jpg

But!

I was disappointed by "Accident and Emergency" (p.s. it's not hard to find the whole song if you are willing to bypass the usual avenues of music acquisition); in fact I think it may be his least fantastic song ever. Which sounds idiotic, but whatever. The Anthony Robbins-level "I can make it on my own!" lyric would be excused by a catchy melody or even just a particularly interesting beat, both of which are utterly absent. It's a fair-to-middling slice of electro that makes itself out to be far more anthemic than it actually is. I don't even miss the violin or the ukulele or Cornwall! It's just that he already wrote this song, and it was called "Tristan" and it was good because there was grunting and cursing and black hair. Now there is sunshine and bright red hair and a turquoise sequined t-shirt and against all odds, it's just not that amazing.

I think my biggest problem with it is the fact that it makes next to no sense if you're not already into Wolf. After two listens to A&E the best thing I could find to say about it was, "Oh, he's happy, that's so GOOD for him!" It's nice to hear emotions in his music besides despondency, anger, nostalgia, abject misery, etc. etc. Except--and I hate to say it--I kind of liked his music better when he was dark and troubled and gothic and making interesting music.

None of which is to say that I'm not listening to the song 3-4 times a day and singing along.

it is making me quite astonishingly happy right now. i can't believe how much i love this man.

i love it!

http://static.last.fm/proposedimages/original/6/1166314/270140.jpg

How is the new album btw? I've heard the title track and while I think it's great, it's sprightliness and optimism is a little jarring. It makes me jealous that someone's been putting Patrick in the magic position.

Assuming there even was a CD.

But I still can't get behind it. Everything about it screams vanity. What the hell is he singing about?

and he's so not gay. look, here he makes out with kelly osbourne:

http://www.thecobrasnake.com/partyphotos/londontrash/images/IMG_1942.jpg

Oh and he is so gay. Kelly O had a boyfriend at the time who apparently didn't mind this lanky red-head kissing her. Or at least, happily bi. I don't think he knows himself. Seemed quite happy discussing cute emo boys with Kele from Bloc Party in an interview I read a while back.

i have just witnessed one of his legendary on-stage tantrums. This time out of nowhere, he throws a hissy fit in the middle of "Tristan", flips his mic in the air and walks offstage for ten minutes. What a drama queen.

but other than that, gotta say he was pretty fantastic! He managed to charm the crowd back after composing himself, which I thought was kind of admirable.

Ha, I just witnessed this as well. Seemed like he fell/wanted a wardrobe change. Plus bubbles and flashes and Mika. The encore was great.

hahaha yes. i was up near the front, and one guy ahead was saying that Patrick got pissed because his keyboards had not been set up properly and kept wobbling. And then he knocked it over, and promptly flipped out. But yes, it was probably bubbles and flashes and Mika too.

Ah, i was a bit further back and just saw him go down and then flip out and, for the first few minutes, just assumed it was all intentional. A bit silly really, he’s an engaging performer without all that hullabaloo. His whole recovery was impressive though. Also, I didn’t know bubbles could detune instruments. Also, I wish people would stop playing at the corner hotel.

i thought it was intentional too, I didn't even notice he knocked the keyboard over until the tech guys came back to fix it. seriously, what a temper. he did look miserable for a bit until he took down that heckler and got all cheered up again.

yeah what was with the bubbles? seemed pretty harmless. But then I blame the crowd of renn fair rejects right at the front for that, all of whom did not seem old enough to be at that gig in the first place.

He is really dramatic and passionate but I LOVE THAT HOMO! He's so pretty and angular and limber and musical. I loved him most when he thought he was a wolf, a little less when he thought he was a wild country man and a lot less in his current disco poppy incarnation.

"Wind in the wires...."

"you should spend the night with me before making comments like that, dear"

his first album is still the best yes

Wind In The Wires>>>Magic Position>>>Lycanthropy.

I wonder if Greist has seen Patrick live, because Patrick is one of those rare occasions, for me, when seeing someone live has totally cemented and in fact exploded my affection, and made me a; love the whole shebang, and b; adore the records even more.

Was so disappionted with The Magic Position. "Magpie" actually sounds like some sub My Life Story shit.

New song "Careless Talk" on myspace, for the soundtrack to the Dylan Thomas not-really-a-biopic, The Edge of Love.

oh pat, why have you gone all jamie cullum on me? :(

ok i'm exaggerating, it's not THAT bad. it's better than "Enchanted" at least, which was the worst song off the Magic Position. still I wish he wasn't going further down the jazz route - I don't think he pulls it off very well.

It's very period, but that's to be expected given the context.

Enchanted reminds me of Is A Woman by Lambchop.

Wind In The Wires might be one of my favourite albums ever.

I knew he wouldn't stop performing, he's a born performer. Also a towering, demented woodlands elf.

The Guardian:

The lupine singer-songwriter breaks his promise of early retirement by releasing a double set dedicated to his 'old love, William the Conqueror'. We think that's his boyfriend, not the former Duke of Normandy.

Once again, Patrick Wolf's gone and confounded our expectations. Last year, the theatrical singer-songwriter threatened to quit music altogether, but now, equally theatrically, he's announced plans to release a double album.

"Think Smashing Pumpkins and Kate Bush," he wrote in a MySpace posting. "I'm going double, double, trouble."

"The album has been in my blood for a year and much more," he wrote. "The label thinks it will be a disaster, I'm sure, as it comes more from the bottom of my heart even than [debut album] Lycanthropy. [It's] about my father's cancer, my solitude, my true love, my Irish roots, everything that has touched me to the core in the last year."

lol why does everyone think he's gay

Also a towering, demented woodlands elf.

haha! smashing pumpkins + kate bush = ok i will listen, thanks

lol why does everyone think he's gay

"i am so ready for my album to come out and start touring now, but unfortunately, there are still a few perfectionist streaks in me that make want to mother and father these albums a bit more before I know theyre finished, im gonna tell you, the new album is also super tough and inspired alot by becoming sick and tired of ugly female reproductive organss shouting words that should have been made illegal sixty years ago at me as i walk down the street, by my boyfriend having his face covered in blood by three butt ugly homophobes as i held his hand and..... in return used my sexy legs to protect us both on the way home to our apartment... (kung fu is the best way to protect yourself and the one you love btw, i dont promote human violence, but i am a werewolf after all, funny things happen when your blood runs cold and the moon is full)"

This, perhaps? From the same post which gave the Guardian the album info quoted above...

Either way, I'm looking forward to this double album of spleen. The Magic Position had some incredible songs on it, but as a whole it didn't hang together as a piece in the same way Lycanthropy or Wind in the Wires did. Patrick may be insane, melodramatic and occasionally verging into self-parody, but he's also bloody brilliant. Smashing Pumpkins, Kate Bush, and based on earlier reports, Alec Empire, Atari Teenage Riot, industrial metal techno one CD and orchestral stuff on the other.

everyone including him ;)

Priming the Conner Smedley jokes...

"i am a werehomo."

i don't trust anything he says anymore but he'd better not be kidding about Kate Bush + Pumpkins. And as always, I'm worried about his new look:

http://www.dyskrasia.org/lj/patrickguitar.jpg

...

geetars just looks wrong on this dude.

better than his last look!

So he's making a consciously gay album? Plz 2 channel Coil not Rufus Wainwright

Well, he's got the scatalogical fixation down enough to do a convincing Coil...

http://www.nme.com/news/patrick-wolf/41562

Bump; no one at all interested?

"Something fantastic happened just as I was about to start that journey and I had all these songs to record - I fell in love,"

I thought that's what happened for The Magic Position? I much prefer angsty patrick to happy patrick.

just a tenner for a 'share' does sound like a good deal though.

well, depending on what you get for it i suppose.

No, not interested. I'll happily fun Circulus's spaceship for £50 (and I get my picture in a porthole on their album cover) but Patrick Wolf can go peddle his arse down Soho if he wants cold hard cash.

FUND, not fun. Though I'm sure FUN will be involved, too.

Subprime assets in 2008! You've got to respect him for going against the prevailing trend.

I chucked a tenner in.

his new video is o_O

http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/12569-vulture-nsfw/

wtf

at least the music harkens back to lycanthropy. but seriously what is wrong with him.

omg i just saw the album cover and it is also o_O

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x66/mothsmoths/patrick_wolf-the_bachelor.jpg

looool this is like one of those make your own album cover facebook meme thingies

dammit

http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x66/mothsmoths/patrick_wolf-the_bachelor.jpg

loooool

Wow. that cover sure is bad.

But there seems to be a 2009 trend for utterly awful cover art - see also Bat For Lashes?

I am REALLY finding the video mesmerising, but perhaps for all the wrong reasons. Um. Wow.

I always thought he was a bit of a creep but, erm, wow.

The song's not really doing it for me. Sounds like a Fischerspooner outtake as remixed by Justice which is a bit... wow, you're really far behind the curve on this one. Or perhaps he's so far behind the curve he's actually ahead. Has the timelapse of nostalgia collapsed in on itself yet?

Now I'm gonna go watch him as a sci fi Lawrence of Arabia some more. Raped by Turks, you say. Oh my. Let's have some more of that, please.

i feel bad for the ones who own shares of this

That'll be me, then.

how does it feel knowing your $10 went to his bondage outfit

Kind of... naughty.

Can't... stop.... watching......

If I'd thought it would have encouraged this sort of behaviour, I'd have kicked in £10 just to buy him a nipple ring.

Wow. I think I may actually explode if I watch that one more time.

lol yeah i'm somewhat glad i didn't buy a share. although maybe if i did he could've gotten a better designer to do his artwork jesus.

kate have you seen the wind in the wires video? i didn't think he could top that but apparently i was wrong.

Um, noooooo... does it involve Lawrence of Arabia costumes and rape by Turks?

I'll go look on YouTube.

OH. OH GOODNESS.

Is it just me, or are all Patrick Wolf videos just Germaine Greer essays brought to life?

Yes, he's a beautiful boy throwing himself about and totally objectifying himself for the (fe)Male Gaze.

I JUST WISH HIS MUSIC WASN'T SUCH GODAWFUL SHIT.

he'd be my wet dream if his music was any good at all. But I'm sorry, I really don't like it. And never have.

So just make your soundtrack.

I'm trying to think of musicians I really like, but are butt ugly, whose music I can play over the top of those shrieking gay pr0n vids.

can you please stop

^^^ polite

Wait, do I have to stop because I don't like his music, or do I have to stop because I dared to mention sexuality and objectification in the context of a musician who is essentially throwing himself around in bondage gear in one of his videos?

This is a serious question, BTW.

Because Wolf is one of those artists that I *should* - according to all the signifiers that he drops and the influences and the namechecks and the "frequently liked by people who like X, Y and Z" where I like X, Y and Z - really like.

But his music really leaves me cold.

And it really does leave me with the sense of "is there something I'm not *getting* here?"

But I've never been able to get an answer out of a fan that didn't involve all the performance, the personna, the *himness* of the whole thing.

Not that that's necessarily a bad thing - presentation is a huge part of pop. But it does leave me feeling that it's all presentation and I'm just not hearing any substance to it.

it's the WAY you mention sexuality and objectification, in regard to yourself. it's creepy.

i seriously don't need to hear about you exploding and having wet dreams.

oh are we doing this again? seriously you boys to need to suck it up whenever girls gush over dudes on this board - how is it any less creepy when someone talks about having a boner for ann coulter or whatever? (apologies to whoever it was on ile btw, just an example, but this is basically one of those things that the female ilxors put up with all the fucking time because y'all are a bunch of horndogs). i mean yikes, at least patrick wolf is pretty.

as for his music, tbh i liked him better when he was all Victorian seaside goth and i didn't know much of his persona/performance style. i find him kind of insufferable these days - his interviews where he's all "I'm an ARTIST" would be lady gaga-esque in their annoyingness if not for the fact that i think he's at least more convincing at it than gaga is. in the early days, what appealed to me was the sheer strength in his songwriting and delivery. he's one of the few performers out there who actually doesn't really need to be running around naked to be compelling but there he is.

Cutty, with all due respect, grow up and deal. Or hit suggest ban or whatever it is that you do when confronted with scary female sexuality that you can't cope with. You wanna go back and re-read that whole thread where every boy on ILM watched the Womanizer video and commented on OMG BRITNEY IS NAKED?!?!?!? Music and sexuality and emotion are totally part and parcel and interlinked.

Wolf is just one of those performers where I find the music and the personna totally inseparable. So I suppose how you're going to feel about the music is tied in with whatever image he's inhabiting. My problem is, I am intrigued by the image, but I don't find any more substance to him than Lady Gaga or whoever because I don't engage with the music.

It's like Bowie without the tunes. As you say, insufferable.

when you start talking about bodily fluids it's not ok

ps. you are gross

You know, if I actually cared whether random prudes on the internet thought I was "gross" or not, I wouldn't be 1) posting on the internet or 2) listening to PATRICK WOLF, now, would I?

We're talking about a man who PUT HUMAN SHIT through one of my friends' mailboxes, and you're freaking out because I'm talking about *metaphorical* wet dreams?

Are you sure YOU are in the right place?

your friend probably deserved it

why oh why did patrick wolf put a poo through your friends letter box?

i didn't care too much for the song but loved the other albums enough that i'll still try the album out.

yeah, i'd forgive the video if the song even have a hook. it doesn't go anywhere.

he posted a new piano ballad on his youtube channel a few weeks back that was much better but i guess he wanted to go the upbeat route.

Well, apparently that song is at least partially Alec Empire's fault.

I actually kind of dig the song, and the video's not bad, if a bit...all over the place. I feel like most of Patrick's videos have a really solid idea at their core and then just kind of...lose themselves somewhere. I'm not sure if there's a single one that I really LOVE. That said, I adore his first two albums, and even if his persona has gradually started to overtake what was an immense display of songwriting talent around Lycanthropy and Wind in the Wires, there's usually enough there that's worth a listen that I'd want to support him. The Magic Position still had some really solid tunes and interesting production even when it occasionally faltered.

So...I mean. It's a double album. It'll probably be self-indulgent and over the top and he seems to be indicating that he's going even more performative. I'm still looking forward to it. And he is quite attractive. Plus, his voice is this gorgeous baritone thing that's just gotten more forceful and confident overtime. And he's insanely talented musically. Dude rearranges his songs fourteen different ways, and you'll never be sure if you end up with an electrostomp version, an acoustic piano medley or a string quartet.

Patrick's the most compelling musician around for me at the moment, and that's absolutely nothing to do with his persona or image.

I really didn't mind that song at all. In fact, quite liked it.

That song is pretty exemplary of why I do not go out to many gay dance clubs.

That said, i want to fuck him hard.

^^^^^^^^^

Cutty, oh Cutty why are you not tearing *this* guy a new arsehole for saying this?

Double standard ahoy.

his was less gross tbf.

yeah i mean just being blunt about it vs. rhapsodizing in slippery damp gross l0u1s jagg3r style

oh, to palpate the mellifluous glistening buttocks of patrick wolf, esquire

i think he's pasty nasty totally unfuckable btw

x-post LOL

Patrick's the most compelling musician around for me at the moment, and that's absolutely nothing to do with his persona or image.

― Sickamous Mouthall (Scik Mouthy), Friday, March 20, 2009 10:25 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Sickamous Mouthall only pays attention to the IMPORTANT stuff

It's all about the ukulele.

Sorry; I meant tumescent dong.

i would compress patrick's waveforms

:D

I kind of miss that ukelele pop phase he was on for like...a minute and a half. And yeah, still one of the most compelling musicians, I was just observing that there's been an expansion of stuff-extraneous-to-music in recent years that didn't really exist before and seems to colour a lot of people's reactions one way or the other.

thought that song was okay, pretty good by english haircut-indie standards

Fucking genius.

I love this guy so much.

it's growing on me. production and arrangement are amazing. the best parts of lycanthropy (beats) and wind in the wires (strings and instruments and song structure) with the production glisten of the magic position. the songs themselves will need a bit more time to grow on me. besides the incredible Hard Times, Oblivion and Vulture it's all quite slooow. (not a bad thing, but generally he has a bit more uptempo stuff, even when he's being a total downer). the bachelor is gorgeous though. also thickets and theseus.

the only moment that is a bit much for me to take on first listen is the beginning of who will? which is so overly explicitly about teh buttsecks in such a non-metaphorical way that it makes me giggle. i mean, "who will penetrate the tightening muscle" is a bit ridiculous beneath the guy who's written teignmouth. (unless the tightening muscle is his heart. in which case my mind is stuck in the gutter.) interested to see how this will translate to the stage. not sure where it stands in relation to the other three albums, but i think he's done it again.

who will penetrate the tightening muscle

"but he's not GAY!" uhhh

Hahaha, he is apparently with a bloke now, aye, BUT a; he did definitely go out with a female gallery curator for a couple of years, and b; this record's about being a miserable singleton, so he probably does mean his aorta rather than his sphincter.

Blackdown = Kate Bush, yes?

AND FUCK ME HERE COMES JIG OF LIFE

I could really do without the Titanic woodwinds.

I'm willing to forgive those for... I was going to say his voice, which is absolutely extraordinary, but, y'know, I'll forgive those for EVERYTHING ELSE pretty much.

Mixing / arrangements are fucking extraordinary.

Mixing / arrangements are fucking extraordinary

yes. while i am totally enamoured of his low-fi lycanthropy beginnings, and even though the album release is self-funded, you can tell that he produced and recorded the tracks on a major label budget, because the depth and the clarity and the everything, really.

Yeah. This is totally great. And Vulture was a complete red herring. For all his talk of Atari Teenage Riot and Alec Empire collaborations, this album is far folkier than most things he's done recently. It's has a very Celtic vibe to it - hearkens back to the entire tone of Wind in the Wires. The electronica edge is back in full force too, even on the big melodrama-y balladry. I'd put money on Vulture and Battle being the only two songs that Empire had a hand in, and while they're both quite good in their own ways, they don't necessarily gel with the rest of The Bachelor, which really wallows in Patrick's singledom.

Best new element added to his palette: the fiddles and recorders and the war drums in the second half of Blackdown. And Eliza Carthy's vocals in the title track which have this total air of mystery and otherworldliness to them. 'The Bachelor' is what I think 'Magpie' was trying to capture on the last album, but never quite managed to.

ok, this is awesome. i even like the single, without having to watch that horrible video.

he's finally been able to re-create what i loved so much about lycanthropy. i was about to give up on this guy.

i gave up on him already but i'm dead keen to hear this now. lycanthropy was always my fave.

you will enjoy this.

i can't get enough of this homo. who is with me?
― mc (mcutt), Friday, January 23, 2004 4:19 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

finally, i feel like i did on january 23, 2004 again.

fuck me this is fab. I was about to give up on him too.

This album sounds big and expansive in a way I thought The Magic Position should've sounded but only occasionally succeeded at.

On a big-hi-fi with properly positioned speakers this is going to be awesome; so much soundstaging and clever use of stereo.

This guy and Dan Snaith have probably made my favorite music of the decade. Maybe add Spoon in there, and I'd say Bark Psychosis too if Graham had done more than one album.

The woodwind's less Titanic than Lord of the Rings, perhaps.

either way lo-fi woodwinds >>> hi-fi woodwinds.

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/wolfcov452.jpg

loooooooooool.

california love

My saddle's waiting, come and jump on it.

http://www.diskull.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/patrick-wolf.jpg

The kids on the Wolfboard are complaining of flat production, wtf?!

I love this dude.

Listened to this a couple of times, it's good. Maybe really good. A bit lacking in fun maybe - ok there's Vulture and Battles but they're amongst the weakest tracks imo - but it aims way higher than the last two and he pretty much hits the mark. I don't like the title track though - I love his voice but it seems he always manages to pick guest vocalists whose voices I hate.

love the guest vocalists. who is the raspy voiced one?

Wikipedia says Eliza Carthy but that can't be right.

"Pitchfork Media, to the contrary, is expected to lambaste the album as pretentious, self-indulgent and unoriginal."

Eliza Carthy is on the title track; Tilda Swinton does the narration type bits.

I tort it was a fella

u tort rong

I tort it were a feller too first.

"The Sun is Often Out" added to the list of beautiful songs I can't listen to very often 'cause they leave me blubbing in my cornflakes.

i don't really like the tilda swinton bits. i like her, but on the record she seems out of place and contributes to that whole lack of fun mentioned earlier. i need to listen to the record some more though. it might grow on me.

I'm listening to this on the basis of Nick's Tweets about it and it's strangely fascinating ... I'm trying to work at the same time so I'm not really paying that much attention, but Who Will? has actually stopped me in my tracks and made me think, OK, this is really bloody good.

So. Thanks, Nick!

Seeing him in two weeks. Last time he was in Montreal, he and Bishi and the band put on quite the spectacle. Given how much interviews have stressed the amount of work he's put into the stage-show this time around, I'm genuinely curious to see what we get.

Haven't heard this guy yet but judging from the album covers he seems to be dabbling in something very "new-romantic"...which begs the question, why isn't Simon Reynolds aaaall over this?!

Will have the check this out on my own...

He's not really new romantic, I'm afraid... more Kate Bush with bits of Aphex Twin.

Aye, but it was the haircut etc that put me off to begin with :)

This is a fucking awesome record.

The percussion & talking & stuffnoise in the background of the title track is a field recording of the Northampton Conker Festival, apparently, some proper mad folk thing with black-faced women banging sticks in a fertility dance.

Vaguely frustrating that more ILM people aren't going FUCKING WOW at this awesome Kate Bush / folk / techno / high-camp orchestral drama pop.

i detect new romanticism in all patrick's work. why don't you?

Fucking love the Wolf boy. His quality control is not always 100% but he is a jaw-dropper.

La Roux is so obviously his replacement in Polydor's eyes, given that she's done exactly what they wanted him to do. And she even looks like him.

Anyway for Sick Mouth. Obviously the boy Wolf has just been coming back from some hellish K-peppered night out in Vauxhall and stumbles across an early morning Status Quo TV appearance. This is fucking mint (sorry if this is upthread, I don't have time to read all of it):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inyJss9GlRE

Ah yes, I remember that incident... odd young man.

arrested in san francisco lol

lol
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/10/partrick-wolf-arrested

hahahhahaha this dude

Amazing music. Insane musician.

such a diva

"Take your shitty-ass music out of this city" - LAPD totally OTM.

Or San Francisco police, even.

I'm finding it difficult to believe that San Francisco would have much of a problem with a flamboyant gay pop star. Until he spits in their faces, obviously.

who the fuck is ian cohen @ pitchfork and what is he talking about?

Ian's an ex Stylus writer, I know him. I like the album much more than he does, but I have to say that I can see his points.

"The Sun Is Often Out" follows up with diminishing returns, struggling for a tune until a coda of choirboy chanting tries to make the preceding events sound like they were building towards something cathartic.

Tries, and for me, succeeds, wildly, terrifically, and heartbreakingly.

That's the thing though, isn't it? Some people are gonna be thrown down weeping by it, others are gonna find it a bit boring.

What about "Tilda Swinton as 'The Voice of Hope'"? Yeah I can see how some people might find that ridiculous. It doesn't bother me for the most part, for one thing her contribution is pretty minimal. On Theseus though I think she's incredible. The fact that she's part of the song, backing up the main vocals instead of just having a random interjection in the middle, really makes it.

I think she's terrific in Oblivion, too. Had it been anyone bit Ian I'd have had a bit of a hissy, but I know he's super reasonable and our tastes overlap a fair bit, so it's not like he'd be anti PW or the record on any kind of principle or remote aesthetic tip.

I mean, he makes solid criticisms of the record, but they seem oddly weighted.

"The Bachelor's strengths sound borne out of arrangements rather than visceral or melodic thrills"

I mean, I would disagree that there aren't melodically thrilling moments, but even if this is true the arrangements, instrumentals and composition hit me in a very visceral way. I love Bat for Lashes and adored St Vincent's first album, and for the life of me don't get his negative comparisons. Patrick's songcraft is as strong as BFL's if not moreso, and while he's not necessarily FUNNY that often (except perhaps darkly, sardonically so), I don't see how humor would serve the goals/themes of THIS record.

Like. Sure...he admires Kate Bush and is kind of self-serious and uses a lot of choirs, but what happened to taking a record on its own terms? If part of the joy of this is that it treats an album as a cohesive whole....address that, maybe?

Just got back from seeing Patrick play the Mod Club in Toronto. Wow. Incredible set...the boy was in top form. Unfortunately, the monitors kept fucking up and halfway through the set he pulled a classic Wolf move and stormed off stage for ten minutes in a huff while they fixed the technical problems. Came back on wearing next to nothing and gave us another 45 minutes or so of music, including a rendition of Vulture that brought him into the crowd, where he stayed for Battle as a bonus, moshing with the entire crowd and passing around the microphone. Nothing performed from the first album, but the other three got covered fairly well.

Intense.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY6hSw-BbQ0

.......

"Hard Times" is quite epic, innit?

first two albums - ott yes but quite heartfelt and interesting and clever.

everything since? pretty awful. and he's turned into such a celeby entourage twatty nme diva i can't go back to the old records anymore. THANKS.

LOL. Throwing motion reminds me of Tom Cruise throwing the dog tags at the end of "Top Gun."

Fucking awesome last night at the Palladium.

Hard Times got practically the entire audience on its feet and down the front dancing.

Damn you Britishers and your ability to see such concerts. Who ended up being the special guests?

Florence (of & The Machine fame) and Alec Empire.

i can't get enough of this homo.

Do they sell this t-shirt at his shows yet?

;)

"but he's not gay!"

huh

His boyfriend's gay.

lol

Florence was there? WTF. In what capacity? That's...sort of amazing. And v. unexpected - I would have figured Bishi or something like that.

She dueted with him on the title track of his new album; it's Eliza Carthy on the record.

Bishi was unhappily at home with some kind of horrible lurgey.

Will definitely try and catch him next time around, hopefully whenever The Bachelor 2 comes out.

Hmm. That's interesting - Carthy's voice is much more textured and um...interesting...than Florence's. I quite like Lungs and caught Florence live a few weeks back, but she really only has two setting, doesn't she? Normal and FULL BLARE. Curious how that would have worked.

I would have preferred Carthy, definitely, but Flo did a good job; she's got some timbre there, and exercised some control.

Alec Empire's little solo interval was pointless knob-twiddling, but when he went mental in the context of some actual songs it was great fun.

Test reply.

Have loved both recent singles. Can't fathom why he's not massive. Tried.

http://sickmouthy.com/2011/03/23/why-does-everybody-hate-patrick-wolf/

That made an interesting read. I do like a lot of his music but I was going through my collection recently looking for some CD's to get rid of (this is an on going thing I do) I put on the Bachelor and started listening through, I was really surprised how little I enjoyed it, I always thought it was his weakest by a long way but it's actually just a really poor album. The first album and Magic Position are the two I enjoy the most plus the singles from Wind In The Wires but I really don't have any interest in the new album. I just heard the new single the other day and it left me completely cold.

It's interesting what you say about people really not liking him. I saw him live around The Magic Position album and he seemed in a really bad mood on stage and admitted he was hungover, it was pretty obvious he wasn't into it. It didn't stop me liking him but me and my friends were really unimpressed. I had a similar experience with Conor Oberst when I saw him at Glastonbury but he was such a shit on stage it made me throw out all his albums when I got back, Patrick wasn't that bad. Since then I have read things that have not done him any favours, didn't he attack one of his band members on stage? Also when The Bachelor failed to get nominated for the Mercury music prize he had a bit of a strop saying "what do I have to do to get nominated, in times like this I ask myself what would Klaus Nomi do" well Klaus Nomi probably wouldn't have cried about it or even given a shit about some meaningless award.

I'm probably being too hard on him and I'm sure I like music by plenty of people that are complete twats (hello Mark E Smith) but there is something about him that is quite off putting and people seem to pick up on that. I like interesting pop stars but he tries way too hard and beyond the outfits and changing his hair colour for each album, is he actually that interesting? He seems much closer to Lady Gaga than Kate Bush who is obviously who he's aiming for.

seriously i liked him more when he was a corny Byronic goth as opposed to shiny popstar - wind in the wires remains my favourite album by him.

he's not massive because

a) he's a twat
b) he's a difficult sell from album to album. there's nothing wrong with having a malleable image but he tries too hard to be everything to everyone (popstar, provocateur, moody singer-songwriter, arty hipster) and ends up not pleasing anyone at all.
c) although most of his songs are well-crafted and polished, he doesn't bring anything interesting or unique to the genres he borrows from. usually it's just unconvincing. the problem i have with his later material is that a lot of it feels kinda phony - he wants to do early 90s pop so he writes "the city", he wants to be Cole Porter so he writes "enchanted". it sounds like he's doing karaoke on his own songs. he's got talent spilling out of him but it isn't directed towards a clear vision of what he wants to be as a performer, which is a waste.

imo he's never topped the first record

So great live.

Was just getting round to trying to get rid of my ticket for his gig this friday, 29 april, since I'm going to a wedding. In the course of my researches I discover the gig was last month, 29 march. *punches self in face*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPliwL71pj0

Next single from Lupercalia. I'm kind of digging the tone of this album. It's as ebulliently joyful as The Magic Position was while somehow managing to be slightly less camp.

They play him on radio 2 now.

^^^^^^^^^^with the sound of that single he has just turned into...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_qZ5B-yioU

(Patrick looks better in a dress, mind you)

Just saw PW on the N-Dubz reality show

What? That must be something else. N-Dubz is a magnificently confusing musical thing that I have never quite understood. I kind of like the idea of them having a reality show. Does Dappy wear many silly hats?

Gosh. This is very pop. Really unashamedly so. Like, makes The Magic Position look ashamed.

one of the tracks (featured sax solo i think ?) got a lot of radio2 airplay a few weeks back.

doh. as mentioned upthread.

Oh, so it's a happy pop album, then?

Oh dear. I don't like the albums he makes when he's happy and in luuuuuurrrrrrve and all shiny so much as the ones he makes when he's miserable and hating humanity.

That said, this would be absolutely typical if I didn't like this album. It's the kind of thing that happens when there's an artist that I dislike on first exposure, then slowly come around on until one day it flips, and I love that artist as much as I formerly was repulsed by them. And when it finally clicks, and I get it, that's when they turn around and abandon whatever it was that had suddenly made them click for me. Like I start to doubt mine own reversal and mistrust my judgement.

Suppose I should wait and reserve judgement, but I'm feeling such trepidation about love so hesitantly given.

N1ck, have you heard the whole thing? I just have the four tracks released so far?

And yeah, from the production on the singles it was clear that this was going to be a mite bit poppier than The Bachelor, but Armistice sounded promising. I wish I could hear the original recordings of this stuff. The snippet of the earlier version of "Time of My Life" that was on the Battle Megamix released before The Bachelor came out sounded all lo-fi and aggressive and bitter and it was A++ good.

I'm a miserable wolf fan too. I was really looking forward to the Bachelor part 2, whatever happened to that? Has some of it been repurposed for this?

I think the first two and the last one are the territory you should stick to for now; this one is definitely a happy pop album. I'm really enjoying it, but I'm at a point with him where I love his craft so much I can just take whatever emotional direction he goes in. I think WitW will always be my favourite though, saying that.

Alex: I have literally just finished hearing the whole thing for the first time as I typed this.

This is still the Bachelor Part 2, because he always said that the first part was about being cursed and afraid you're going to die alone, and the second part is falling in love and feeling redeemed.

Don't like the first one so much, it still just sounds like a bad Capitol K record to me.

::ducks cabbage and tomatoes thrown from all sides::

Hoping that the mysterious second will be the more rough and nasty demo material? Like rifling through his hard drives (fnar) isn't that what it's supposed to be?

To be honest I'm not that fussed about the debut; I liked it but I don't think his songwriting was up to scratch.

What do you mean by 'mysterious second' though? His discography goes:

Lycanthropy (priapic shouting and beats and violins)
Wind In The Wires (more reserved folk with electronic touches, songcraft)
The Magic Position (glam pop with baggage)
The Bachelor (grand dark folk)
Lupercalia (pop)

Mysterious second disc that's supposed to come with the deluxe edition? Sorry, I think there was more to that post that got deleted when I changed a word.

Aha right, I get you. I gather that's what it's meant to be, aye. Not got that, just the album proper.

It was on some link *you* posted on twitter, so I assumed you'd know more about it than me!

Yeah. The Bachelor Part II has been repurposed for this, more or less. It was supposed to be called The Conqueror (as in William, as in his fiance) and was thus the happy in love complement to the moroseness of the The Bachelor. He seemed to have abandoned the tracks he did in Los Angeles with "dance producers" in favour of his own stuff, and glossed up the old tunes a bit, at least from the press discussion of it over the past year or two.

Did he end up keeping the Tilda Swinton bits on this album, or did those get tossed out with "The Conqueror"?

No Tilda that I noticed on first listen.

And yeah. Lycanthropy was my favourite when I first got into Patrick - something about it appealed to young/angry/ambivalent-about-being-queer me - but these days Wind in the Wires usually tops the list. It's a perfect balance of the first album's glitchy electronica anger, his talent for composition/arrangement, and TUNES (without being too perky). Plus, it's when his voice started evolving into a properly confident baritone.

The Bachelor was a step back in that direction, just with bigger production. That said, The Magic Position has a lot of moroseness buried under the surface. The title track and Get Lost can obscure stuff like Bluebells and Augustine and The Stars (and even Accident & Emergency, which has a bit of A Boy Like Me in it).

xp

No Tilda! Shame. There was something lovely about over the top narration in the middle of tracks. Ah, well.

The way you can tell that WitW is the keeper is the fact that it's the album with all of the stellar B-sides.

Godrevy Point alone is easily better than most of his catalogue.

^ Ah, that's interesting. I compiled all his b-sides from that era on to a single collection and it got more play than the album proper.

Also, there was a lot of knee-jerk "The Bachelor is shit" stuff, which surprised me, it's miles away my favourite.

There's a couple of B-sides from TMP that I really love: Adder, and The Marriage. The Tinderbox from the last album was good too. I doubt one will be able to judge albums these days from the quality of accompanying b-sides. :(

Opening three tracks on The Bachelor are AMAZING. After that it's still very good but perhaps drags a tiny little bit. It could do with being 5 minutes shorter.

It was those WitW B-sides that flipped me from "I'm really not sure about this..." to "OMG I absolutely love this."

It could also have been situational. I was in the midst of a happy week yomping about on the moors above St Ives being teenage and moody, when Sick & his missus picked me up in their car and whisked me out to Sennen. In the car back, they played those for me, and it was the combination of spectacularly bleak, beautiful Cornish coast which I love so much, and then hearing those bleak, beautiful songs about that coast while driving along it. (Also that and the combination of risk of sudden DEATH being bounced around the back of the car while Sick raced along those incredibly narrow twisty, turny lanes, might have helped)

And now I can't hear those songs without thinking of that coast, and the way I see it, and every time I hear it, it's like "Yes, THIS"

There's this perfect balance between being all teenage and stroppy and actually hitting on something transcendently true and eternal about human longing, on that album.

I know there are bits of The Magic Position which are mazing in the same way - I mean, there's that duet with Marianne Faithfull to start with - but both it and the Batchelor have skippable bits in the way that there isn't a note of WITW that I would miss.

No Tilda = BOOOOOOOO tho

(Nick if you really wanted to be a hero, you could make me a B-sides compilation of all that stuff. I'll swap it for a print of that pic I'm working on that I know yr missus likes) ;-)

I do really like the Batchelor a lot, its high points are very very high (god damn, Damaris!) but there are just a couple of tracks I tend to skip.

I mean, Damaris is almost so close but not quite over the line to self parody that it ends up being incredible. It's a real guilty pleasure. The only way it could be better would be if it was a sin.

One of these days I will learn how to spell Bachelor.

Also, there was a lot of knee-jerk "The Bachelor is shit" stuff, which surprised me, it's miles away my favourite.

― THE Alan Moulder?!? (Ówen P.), Wednesday, May 25, 2011 11:55 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah, by no means is The Bachelor shit. The production values are off the charts and the arrangements feel like what some of the earlier albums would have been had he had a proper budget. I can't quite explain why I don't go back to it as often. Individually all of the songs are amazing, but the combination of all of them is very heavy. It's a lot to take in.

Track for track, it's definitely one of his strongest releases, but I can't really listen to it except as an entire album, and that requires time/mood/focus. Blackdown, Thickets, Theseus and The Bachelor are all astounding, though. I think maybe if I cut Damaris and The Sun is Often Out it might be a smoother listen, but the tone of the album would be affected..

Nah, I love those two songs. It's Count The Casualty and Battle (knock it off, are you Blur? you are not. stop it.) that I tend to skip.

^ Ah, that's interesting. I compiled all his b-sides from that era on to a single collection and it got more play than the album proper.

― THE Alan Moulder?!? (Ówen P.), Wednesday, May 25, 2011 11:54 AM (13 minutes ago) Bookmark

Were there that many? Off the top of my head there's:

Penzance
Afraid
The Hazelwood
Idumea
Souvenirs
Godrevy Point
Ignis Fatuus

which is a nice enough EP, and a complement to the album, but I'm not sure if it would get more play than 'This Weather' and 'Teignmouth' and 'The Gypsy King' etc. etc.

Just zipped-up 13 b-sides, will chuck the mediafire link here in a few minutes.

Oh, Count the Casualty and Battle also. Battle is fun enough live, but and Count the Casualty has a lovely little glitchy melody that's Lycanthropy-esque but it's now indelibly associated with Patrick choking himself with a microphone cord and collapsing to the stage, so...

Would cut Battle and Count of Casualty, probably. Not sure about Vulture, I don't normally skip it but... perhaps it adds some needed levity.

Lupercalia was recorded in Spain, Berlin, Paris, LA, and London. Which is interesting.

Vulture is the necessary shot of decadence to explain his (at the time) inability to settle emotionally.

Vulture is absolutely amazing. And really good for dancing.

Cheers, Nick! :-)

I have to be in the mood for Vulture. (And that mood is, willing to put up with the... discomfort that evocation of *that* video causes me.)

B-sides are uploading now; eta 18 minutes.

I'd just like to say that I drove accordingly for the roads and conditions thereof when in Cornwall.

I can't quite explain why I don't go back to it as often. Individually all of the songs are amazing, but the combination of all of them is very heavy. It's a lot to take in.

this pretty much for me. I never mind hearing Bachelor tracks when they turn up on shuffle, but otherwise, never really get the urge to put it on in full.

also lol k8 the video just reminds me of some ilxor clusterfuck now. :P

Also, it's surprisingly pleasant to realize that so many people on ILM dig Patrick. For some reason I always got the sense that his total earnestness would make him fairly trollable around these parts. Go figure.

13 PW b-sides.

http://www.mediafire.com/?gbab88m1k35737m

thank you muchness, nick.

@alex: heh, hasn't it always been generally the same five or so posters since this thread started though?

Ooh, thankee! I owe you 1 piskey now.

(Oh god, Roz, I'm too afraid of the clusterfuck to look above the fold on this thread.)

awesome, thanks for that

2/3s of the way through a second listen, this time via speakers (Zepellin) rather than headphones (Grados), and this is a fucking great record. Amazing, surging, heartrending pop music. 11 tracks, 40 minutes, 10 songs and one interlude halfway through. Very delicate and beautiful in places, stomping and forthright in others. Bits of it are making me almost well-up with happy.

I think he's just matured into a really astonishing songwriter. Like, Bacharach awesome, almost, at points. And yet he has this whole mad persona going on too. Kate Bush is seriously his only peer to my ears.

The samples on iTunes made the stuff we haven't heard yet sound mostly ballad-y. Any other barnstormers left to hear besides Together?

Kate Bush is the artist he most consistently reminds me of, if only for that windswept epic romantic Englishness of the small places.

Though it is still driving me crazy whose vocal tic he has appropriated. For a few weeks, I thought it was maybe Lloyd Cole, but it's not, it's someone else, sometimes I think Brendan Perry but not that over the top.

At our record club Tom reckoned he sounded like Josh T Pearson from Lift To Experience.

The first half is really quick, direct, driving pop, mostly, then the second half is a bit more lush, romantic, drawn-out. Together is awesome.

Bermondsey Street, though, fucking he'll, what a song. Perfect pop.

Stupid North America's lack of release dates. And UK import prices. Grumble grumble etc. Have ordered it anyway, clearly.

Yeats?

I mean, really? Yeats?

o_0

Followed by Sacred Harp?

Knock if off, you contemptible dandy.

This really is great.

http://sickmouthy.com/2011/05/26/patrick-wolf-lupercalia-first-impressions/

Let's POX Patrick Wolf.

Augustine
Wind In The Wires
Bermondesy Street
The Bachelor
Bluebells
Oblivion
Hard Times
The Libertine
Godrevy Point
Penzance

Can we POX Patrick Wolf's haircuts and outfits, or will I get kicked off the thread again for doing that? ;-)

In no particular order:

A Boy Like Me
Wind in the Wires
This Weather
Bluebells
Augustine
The Stars
Hard Times
Oblivian
The Libertine
Penzance

do it kate.

mine:
Teignmouth
The Stars
Wind in the Wires
Ghost Song
Souvenirs
The Libertine
To the Lighthouse
Bluebells
Oblivion
Tristan

(special mention: Bloodbeat)

OK, top 5 PW styling moments:

1) long, ragged black hair, bare chested (WITW video)
2) Aryan bondage boy (Vulture video)
3) Cloud from FFVII (Hard Times)
4) Alice in Wonderland psychedelic troubadour (I think this was Magic Position promo?)
5) Naughty Victorian Jailbait Schoolboy (early days)

ha ha j/k j/k

This Weather
Damaris
Thickets
Magpie
The Sun Is Often Out
The Gypsy King
Godrevy Point
To The Lighthouse
The Bachelor
Tristan (and I'm ALIVE! HA!)

(I haven't spent enough time with the B-sides to adequately pick)

Funny, because even though WITW is my fave, I think of it as one long movement and can't separate it out into individual songs, apart from This Weather which stands out SO MUCH I tend to carolanne on it. And going through, some of my fave individual strongest songs are actually on The Bachelor. But I haven't spent long enough with any of this music to really know what I'm talking about.

Likewise about WitW being one long piece; The Libertine, title track, and This Weather are the only ones I can separate, maybe Tristan at a push.

Wolf Song
Bloodbeat
Pigeon Song
Tristan
Hard Times
Oblivion
Thickets
The Sun Is Often Out
Theseus
Messenger

So. The Bachelor takes the prize here. Not sure I can even call myself a proper Wolf fan with that balance... I don't get on with WITW and I just don't know why, it just glides over me, water and ducks' backs and all that. My favourite track is Tristan which is obviously a Lycanthropy hangover; the title track and This Weather are ok y'know but they just don't have the zest of Lycanthropy or the emotional depths of The Bachelor.

xxpost :D

HOLY SHIT. Bermondsey Street. Wow.

Halfway through, and this is the LP that Magic Position wanted to be, perhaps? The joy doesn't feel as shiny and Disney as it did on TMP and Get Lost, and the album still has its somber moments, but they're suffused with deeply felt contentment.

PW albums always have this undercurrent of restlessness and searching - whether its the youthfulness of Lycanthropy, or WitW's running away to the country, or TMP's escapism, or The Bachelor's darker nihilist search-of-self thing. But the resolution that happened at the end of the last album with Blackdown/Theseus/The Messenger's really stuck.

The back half will take more getting used to, specifically 'The Days' and 'Slow Motion'. ' Time of My Life' is good, but was better as that loop-y rough demo from two years back. 'Together' is fucking awesome and between that and the Who Will? (Buffetlibre Remix) I still want PW to do a front-to-back dance/house album.

So do I, definitely.

Oh shit. I just realized. I was mentally describing Together as New Order/Kraftwerk production, but that synth line is a straight lift from Moroder and 'I Feel Love', isn't it?

And maybe it's just that I'm in the mood for this now and two years ago I was very much feeling The Bachelor-type feelings, but 'Together' epically murks so much of everything.

I'm excited to hear this in its entirety; glad it's made at least six people here super happy.

And I forgot to do a POX, but could only get down to 11. Arbitrary constraints, anyhow.

POXI

Teignmouth
A Boy Like Me
Godrevy Point
Paris
Together
Bluebells
This Weather
Bermondsey Street
Blackdown
Hard Times
The Stars

I feel like making an excited post where I go "BERMONDSEY STREET!!! WOW!!!!! AMAZE!!!!!!!!" so I can be one of the cool kids, while actually just going up there to visit my hand doctor.

He turned up in my dreams last night, which means I have really, REALLY got to stop caning his music so much. Why couldn't I have dreamed of Tilda Swinton instead? Sigh.

Haven't heard Lupercalia yet but Bermondsey Street did sound great the two times I've seen it live.

My POX includes a lot of the singles, and, having got into him through Wind in the Wires, Lycanthropy is the one which I enjoy but don't immediately think of any individual songs from apart from Bloodbeat.

The Libertine
Accident & Emergency
Tristan
Hard Times
The Stars
Bloodbeat
Get Lost
The Stars
Oblivion
The Sun is Often Out

I absolutely hated this album on first listen.

But, given that was my reaction to PW as a whole, and I relented upon intensive relistening, I'm going to try and spend some more time with this album to try and find a way in.

My biggest problem is that I simply cannot relate to it. Albums about love - fuck 'em - they make about as much sense to me, as albums about god make to atheists. It's not just the blankness of "I don't get it" but this actual loathing of "I think this construct of romantic love and 'happily ever after' is actively harmful to people." The cynic in me wants to say "check back in 5 years, he'll write a brilliant divorce album when he hits his 30s." Because PW is brilliant at capturing that pure, visceral, completely in the moment sense of being so consumed by emotion that whatever he is feeling RIGHT NOW, he is unable to even contemplate ever feeling any other way, whether that is the ecstasy of romantic love or the misery of isolation or frustration. But the problem is, right now, he is in-a-moment that I cannot share. I could viscerally understand and relate to songs about restlessness and alienation and trying to rediscover his heritage and his identity through a sense of place. I cannot get with "I'm in love happy skippy lovey lovely love love land"

(Which brings up the issue of, does one *have* to relate to songs to love them? No, of course not, sometimes it is the very strangeness and complete foreign escapism of songs about things which are so completely out of your experience as to be new and exciting which is appealing. But this whole "happily ever after" is not strange and foreign in that way, it's so overly familiar because it is the pink, Disney shaped oppression on which I have been choking my entire life.)

But there's another part of me that thinks it's brave and amazing that here is an album which is not written in metaphor or code or double meanings, but is openly written as a love letter from one man to another. BUT at the same time, I get angry and disappointed at the sense of missed opportunity. I'm going to use a very very clumsy metaphor of marriage vs civil partnership - that I understand why gay and lesbian people want legal, social, cultural recognition of their partnerships, that is 100% important and necessary. But marriage is such a thoroughly rotten institution, riddled with sexism, inequality, patriarchy and corruption, why the *fuck* would you want to buy into that? If you have the opportunity to create an egalitarian, fair and progressive form of partnership without the awful religious and legal baggage of marriage, why can't we create equality of straight people and queer people by opening up civil partnership as this better, wider thing for all, and kick marriage as a concept back into the dark ages. And that's kind of how I feel about PW writing about The Redemptive Power of Romantic Love and "Happily Ever After" - Romantic Love and "Happily Ever After" just make me want to *vomit* no matter who is singing about them.

And sorry, I wasn't impressed by the cosmic disco stylings of Together. Too pastichey for me, feels more like PW just trying on another outfit change, rather than any real genuine affection for the genre. Like cosmic disco is supposed to be about the tension between highly controlled mechanised synthetic music and utter abandonment and ecstasy in the vocals. PW is too mannered, he always seems like he's got too much of an eye on the mirror checking out how his wig looks to surrender to the real ecstasy necessary for that kind of music. Which is odd, because he has certainly, in the past, shown that he can do *real* abandon in his vocals, but often it's at the point where his music is at his most stylised and mannered classical or folk.

I think I would absolutely *hate* if PW made a full on disco or house record. I think I would only like such a thing if it were strange and formal and mannered with lots of odd classical allusions and soft electronic piano and wibbly space strings and featured a video of PW wearing white shorts and a tank top, running in slow motion across pristine Scottish beaches with his blond hair flapping in the wind - oh wait, that record has already been made and it was by Vangelis.

Anyway those are my confused and probably controversial thoughts on first listen. I will probably flipflop on this, because the *strength* of my negative reaction and loathing of it has such an emotional force, and things I feel that emotional about, I can switch from hatred to love much more easily than disinterest to love. I will probably regret posting this. Please don't SB for this post or misread it as "OMG K is against teh gays" because feh! romantic love, vomit, fullstop.

(Would still like a video of PW in white shorts & tank top running across pristine Scottish sands with blond hair flopping a la Nigel Havers, though, please, thanks. Would like very much.)

Maybe all the semi-political explanations are diversionary activity and the simple truth is green eyed envy. This album *hurts*, in that it is a world from which I have been so totally excluded from.

In order

1.Overture (his vocal at 3.55 is a bit special)
2.Who Will? (Don't rate The Bachelor at all but this is beautiful, his best vocal)
3.Tristan
4.Accident & Emergency
5.Wind In The Wires
6.The Childcatcher
7.The Magic Position
8.Bloodbeat
9.A Boy Like Me
10.(Let's Go) Get Lost

Thanks for this, Kate. Being a smug married, and probably of the worst kind (we never see anyone! We just got an allotment!), I can't quite understand, but I can empathise to a certain extent, and I really appreciate you posting this here. I'm hoping the pure craft and joy of the album will seep through, but if it doesn't, that's cool. I'm definitely getting a big emotional hit out of it, and I'm unsure how much is "objective" this-is-greatness and how much is recognition of a state I know.

I cannot get 4 songs into this album without bursting into tears. That does not mean it's a bad album; probably the reverse. But I can't listen to it.

The first four are the most happy-happy-joy-joy ones, the invincible ones.

This is very different to any of his previous albums, but it's right up there with WitW for me now. Time Of My Life, The Days, and Armistice are definitely more ruminative, and show a maturity alongside the invincibility of stuff like Bermondsey Street. Together is awesome. Agree that in many ways this is the record that TMP wanted to be, but at the same time that's not a bad record at all. There's an honesty to this that's sometimes been subsumed in drama or hissy fits before.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15492-lupercalia/

Not that I imagined this would get a decent review after the mediocre reception The Bachelor got, but this still seems unnecessarily eviscerating. For all of PW's quirks, I never get the sense that he thinks himself above pop - half of TMP's press was him talking about how much he appreciated/admired Britney et al., as was all the discussion about the stage show for The Bachelor. And while he certainly tries to shoot for universal on Lupercalia it doesn't really feel impersonal.

Ah, well.

Ian C does a mealy-mouthed hackjob on every PW LP for PF now, seemingly. I have no idea why.

And unfortunately, much like he did on his reviews of The Magic Position and The Bachelor, Ian Cohen is operating like someone who doesn't trust his audience to think at his level, offering a subtly condescending review.

^^^^^fixed yr post, IC.

Subconscious self expression if I ever read it.

Aye. Having seen Patrick live several times, especially at the Palladium in December 2009, he trusts his audience. At the Palladium the crowd went mental at Hard Times, so he adjusted the set list and turned it into a glam disco. Ian's a hipster; hipsters aren't gonna get Lupercalia.

I love that his own label is called "Bloody Chamber Music" btw
I'm not gonna do a POX but "Demolition" would probably be #1

The Falcons is just gorgeous. Combines the panning electronica of 'The Stars' with the the string arrangements of Wind in the Wires, and a lighter touch on the industrial beats of The Bachelor. The end effect is like a higher budget take on a Lycanthropy song, much like The Messenger on the last LP.

He really knows how to finish an album, huh? A Boy Like Me, Land's End, The Stars, The Messenger, The Falcons. They all represent a definitive resolution to their individual albums, and a mission statement for them at the same time.

DUDE. "Together" isn't I Feel Love at all, it's Metropolis. With a side order of Together In Electric Dreams for the Moroder riff.

Just finished listening to the new album for the first time, I really wasn't impressed. Together is brilliant and The Falcons is really pretty but apart from those nothing else stuck out at all. It reminds me of when Rufus Wainwright put out Release the Stars a few years ago, it sounded like he had tried to make a really polished pop record but it sounded totally flat to me.

Maybe it will grow on me, but at the moment you can put me in the prefered him when he was unhappy camp.

I've come around on this album, so I'm no longer in the "preferred him when he was unhappy" camp so much. Well, maybe I've pitched my tent just outside the border.

The only song that still *really* bugs me is Bermondsey St, which I hate as much as others seem to love it. But stuff like The Future, it's painful but I find it beautiful. The staggered little melody on that "You come near, I see my future clear and a thresh-hold appears..." line and the high harmony an octave up is so lovely that I'm willing to forgive it the U2 guitar solo.

I'm touch and go on the "big" production. It's weird how his songs in a way sounded so much *more* epic when they were so much simpler. It's harder to sound epic and sweeping when you've got just a violin and voice than when you've got billion pound studio strings at your disposal - but somehow more effective. That said, there are some gorgeous string arrangements on this album - The Days is completely swoonsome, those drooping strings make me melt.

It bugs me though, that House has lifted that backing progression off something else - not the melody but the countermelody on the violin. And it probably isn't actually James, but it really reminds me of something like Simple Minds or Modern English, like I keep wanting to sing "stop the world and melt with you" along with it or something *like* that - but it's probably not a straight lift, more like a clever reference. I dunno.

This is getting very positive reviews.

That Guardian review you posted was supposed to be positive? Crikey, I'm beginning to understand why some of you hate Alexis Petriedish so much.

Hahahaha, yeah, he's an odd one.

It's 4 stars, the F&M lead review, but it gives almost no impression of what the album sounds like and spends most of its duration going "most people think Patrick Wolf's a wanker, and well, he's a cheerful wanker now".

...and wearing *clothes*! That makes him GAY!

Never mind that you open the Guardian Weekend every week and there is Alexis Petriedish, wearing clothes, and talking about them in detail.

Oh my god! Red cullottes! The gender binary must be preserved at every cost! Also, the APRICOT HORN! (Did I mention that I, the writer, Alexis Petriedish, despite having a girl's name and appearing, wearing clothes, every week in the GIRLY style section of the newspaper, am totally and completely straight and not impressed by any of this, except, well, he sounds happy now, and to prove I'm so totally not threatened by gay dudes at all, I'm going to namedrop Rufus Wainwright.)

Anything else? Oh, I should also mention that I have the soul of a wrinkled prune and not one ounce of imagination or allegory by comparing an allusion to a celtic poet to "ha ha, angry drunken welshman". Four stars!

Why on *earth* would Patrick Wolf be angry at "good" reviews if this bit of utter imcomprehension is what passes for a "good" review.

Oh god. I've become an angry Patrick Wolf fan. Shoot me now.
::throws self off Godrevy Point::
::thinks again and restrains self because I've actually had coffee with the poor sod whose job it is to fish suicides out of the Hell Mouth::
::throws Alexis Petriedish off instead::

There's a Guardian football writer called Barry Glendenning who bascially doesn't like football at all except as a conduit for his third-rate standup routines, Petridis is basically the musical version of that. Except less funny.

Yeah. The Petridis review was jaw-dropping. It manages to be baffled at yw PW could find review offensive and stupid while being offensive and stupid.

My favourite bit was where he couldn't understand what might be homophobic about marketing someone specifically as a niche "gay musician".

OK, Sing?

SING.

Fucking SING. Holy fucking shit in the name of all the is holy the vocal arrangements on that song, aaaaahhhhhhhhh.

Wow.

CD has arrived here. Sounds fabulous not got to bonus disc yet.

Sing is just next-level John Tavener polyphonic vocal harmony that just makes me wish he would quit pop music forever and just write Elizabethan motets in, like, 16 part harmony for the rest of his life.

Honestly, the first time I heard it, I know this is such a cliche but I genuinely had shivers going up and down my spine it's just so emotional.

None of that lovey love-love land crap, just genuine amazing, powerful, inspirational - dare I say spiritual - stuff.

My CD and bonus disc has been shipped but Canada Post is on strike for the foreseeable future. Sigh.

::whistles innocently::

check your ILXmail...

Thx. I had the b-side version of that from my 7" single of The City, but this is really nice!

Still upset that Lemuralia does not include "Wild Life". Guess that was one of the ten LA dance tracks he tossed in the trash. Shame.

Oh wow. On proper headphones. This is properly gorgeous. And very different from the version I had. (re: Sing (Acapella Version))

Just realized that the lyrics of 'Together' are

I can do this alone, but we could do this so much better together.
I can make it alone, but we could make it so much better together.

My brain had read in the standard love song codependence, but this is so much more lovely. It's a big sweeping coupley love song, but it's one that doesn't surrender his own abilities or independence or self-worth.

Out today.

That lyric in Together flips it from being really good into being great.

http://thequietus.com/articles/06449-patrick-wolf-lupercalia-review

Good article, Nick!

Canada Post continues to fail me, so I still haven't received my copies of Lupercalia/Lemuralia, but after a week or two of not listening to it, am spinning Lupercalia obsessively. Also, the two new b-sides for the House single are quite lovely. (Mercia and Divine Intervention.)

Hoping that the lack of release for Wild Life on Lemuralia means it will be a b-side for Together or something like that.

Just got this. So far, I'm digging the back half of the record much, much more than the front, particularly loving the stretch from Time of My Life to the end. The string arrangements on The Days are really beautiful, and Together is just glorious.

I love Slow Motion too partly because the lyrics hit home harder for me than any of the la-la-in-love songs on the record. I guess I like that, unlike the other songs, Slow Motion acknowledges what it takes to get to that place where you can finally give yourself over completely to another person ie finding the strength to get rid of all of this --> "Yes, I was too young to weep from the road. And too proud for help, too scared to grow."

Also like Kate, I don't have the stomach for schmaltz - you're not alone, I really dislike Bermondsey Street too (and House. and The City. glad that I more or less liked everything that came after, I was this close to turning it off completely. :/).

Yeah, I agree the second half is stronger than the first. But it seems like it was purposely frontloaded with really pop singles, and hey it worked coz it went Top 40, innit?

this house is wonderful, and the video is really spectacular

I don't know how I missed this remix, but it will bring pleasure to the ears of those wishing that PW would go in a more straight-up dance remix, with bubbling acid 303s and everything, thank you Mr Ceephax

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKF1XgYXUec

Love this homo.

Quite upset that there are only three North American dates this fall/winter/spring and none of them in Canada.

Fair warning to the ILM Patrick Wolf crew - I'll be taking the helm over at One Week One Band starting next Monday to write about him.

In the process of planning but think I have a general sense of what I'm doing.

Is there anything you think is an absolute must-discuss that I'm probably forgetting?

[Also, we never spoke about that Brumalia EP that came out in December, which was pretty darn good, and included Patrick's blatant attempt at a Christmas song.

Never really got to grips with Brumalia; I think Lupercalia just Patrick'd me out for 2011. Overdosed on it a lot, I guess. Be sure to link to your stuff in here.

Patrick Wolf week has begun over at One Week One Band. Hope I do him justice.

If yr awesome "House" blurb is any indication, I expect greatness.

thank you Alex, looking forward to this!

I am looking forward to this too! Not looking forward to the impact of this week + EMP Conference on my term paper, but whatevs.

Hey gang - any thoughts/feedback so far? I still have time to drastically edit the last three days. Heh.

But seriously, if there's something really awesome that I should be mentioning from Magic Position/Bachelor/Lupercalia era let me know.

No, keep going! It's been great so far, really can't think of anything you've missed. Maybe there's something to be said about his monthly handwritten letters to fans - I haven't kept up with that stuff for years though so I don't know if he still writes them but I always thought it was a great way to keep people interested in between albums/tours. Anyway, loved your reading of The Childcatcher, and lol'd at the WiTW video being compared to D'angelo. :)

Argh, I have been meaning to read this, but it's hard to keep up since I don't have a Tumblr. Will go and catch up now!

He had monthly handwritten letters to fans? WHAT? Wow.

I missed out.

I also have never heard of this!

ahhhh sorry, I didn't make that clear, that does sound like he wrote and mailed it to them - i meant the ones that he used to put up on his myspace blog? He wrote them by hand and scanned them in.

took me a while to find one (apparently they've all been sucked into the internet vortex) but they looked like this:

(apologies in advance for hugeness)
http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i123/tom_bland/zzzzz.jpg

or rather, longness...

A few more here.

Ok. It's done, and I've somewhat recovered from writing/compiling 27,000 words or so. The entire OWOB: Patrick Wolf week is archived chronologically.

Thanks to all of y'all, esp. Roz for those letters, which I posted near the end of the week.

I finally finished reading it all - tremendous work in such a short space of time, Alex! So many links, so many pictures. Really enjoyed your coverage of the whole Battle era esp - went off him a bit at the time so it was nice to see what I'd missed like... uh, I had no idea "Careless Talk" was written by Angelo Badalamenti! That changes things...

seriously, terrific stuff. And glad to see you managed to fit the letters in somehow. :)

New acoustic album, sund4rk & Riverlight, is in fact not NEW but re-recording of a selection of the first decade of his catalogue Joni/Kate style.

“Baptise me with the courage that has seen you
Through great fire doodlebug and bombscare
The Courage of the Immigrant
Canonize the blacks dogs and irish
Who led me to be born to your bells
Raised me to not sink in you suffer
Nor perish in our plague of demolition
London, goodnight
sund4rk and Riverlight”

This project started when I realized I had reached a ten year jubilee as a recording artist, my first EP came out when I was 19 and in that time my voice has grown with me.

I started out playing with just one instrument and singing with no microphones in folk clubs, on the streets and galleries, I missed that raw communication so much and the spontaneous energy of that live situation, which I am bringing back on this world tour ahead. When I went in to the studio I thought I was going to record a one man solo album, but I started to dream and heard bassoons and bodhrans, this is my first totally acoustic album and so I made sure that we were working with analogue tape and mixing desk.

I went on a mission to find a grand piano with the best bass response still full of character and I was told about Real World studios but the piano there was too new, so Peter Gabriel lent me his Bosendorfer Grand and later his Bodhran and Hammer Dulcimer, the album and I are very grateful.

At the beginning of the Lupercalia tour I bought myself a Celtic harp, I stopped playing concert harp just before my first full orchestra solo performance of Cesar Francks A Sharp minor aged 16 as I ran away from home and couldn’t take the harp with me and had nowhere to practice, at 28 with a lot of water under the bridge I felt old enough to be reunited with the instrument again, I think having the harp back in my music has been a big inspiration for making this album.

Recording in Real World was what I desired so much for ‘sund4rk & Riverlight’ to be as alone as I could by a river. I put the string Quartet up on the balcony of the wood room studio to have them suspended as if the sound for the listener was coming from the sun, then I recorded the woodwind quartet in the Pool Studio which is like an empty swimming pool in Bermondsey as if the sound was as a reflection on water.

A couple of years ago I met one of my heroes John Cale after he asked me to support him at the Royal Festival Hall and after our discussion, I suddenly felt allergic to the way music is being produced at the moment, so I knew I was going to start experimenting with acoustic recordings again, my ambition was not to open up my laptop but to retune the Benchside Spinet that had been gathering dust under my bed and open the lid and dream hammers and strings. There was a conscious rebellion on this album against the digital age of auto-tune and mass produced electronic landfill music. I want to present at my 10 year anniversary a musical biography.

I grew up with a love of medieval, minimalist and renaissance classical music as well as listening to Atari Teenage Riot and obsessed with labels like Planet Mu and Tigerbeat 6. My degree studying composition was aborted quickly as it was the same year I had the opportunity to release my debut album Lycanthropy and go on a world tour, I just felt at this point I wanted to revisit a minimalist medieval sound that’s very dear to me. I would say this album was influenced by Stephen Micus, Shirley and Dolly Collins, His Name is Alive, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, The Rachels, Meredith Monk, Johnny Cash, Henry Purcell and John Blow. I chose to shoot the artwork at Hilles House in Gloucester a country mansion looking over the River Severn. rich in the heritage of family members such as the baroque composer John Blow and the rebel fashion visionary Isabella Blow.

Instead of compiling the highlights of my recordings from the last ten years I thought I would highlight the songwriting I felt relevant today to me first of all. As singer and songwriter I notice that some songs take on a life of their own once released, for instance I never knew that ‘Paris’ from ‘Lycanthropy’ would become such an important song for my crowd, often when I perform the songs after they are recorded, new words or meanings come to mind and then i start to improvise as to how I am feeling that night. I thought It was time after a decade to take a moment to document what these songs have grown up to be while I’ve been travelling them around the world.

I made my first album with whatever I had around me, a ton of passion and guts, a 4 track, then a laptop, I had little knowledge of audio engineering so a lot of soldering wires happened and microphones purchased that I didn’t know whether suited my voice or instruments, this album is a chance to re record with better knowledge of how to record and produce my work.

Listening to all the songs of the last ten years I have written to choose what was to be re recorded for sund4rk & Riverlight was enough to drive me insane, I found many recurring patterns, hope out of anger, sadness out of joy, The title comes from the song “London” two words I made up when I was a teenager that i feel describe my body of work to date. Its been a wonderful self assessment to make this album, extremely cathartic, Its left me a clear slate, head and heart to be able to move forward with the next 10 years. I would like to thank Buffy St Marie who co-wrote the new version of Hard Times with me. This is the only cowrite on the album, we met in Barcelona during the recording session and after some amazing discussions about war, peace and revolution she channelled a new message and edition of the song for me. Vulture is now back to the original composition before the co-written Alec Empire version on The Bachelor.

I can’t wait to embark on the forthcoming tour to share these songs and re-compose other songs that didn’t make it on this album, I will be taking requests every night so get in contact through twitter and facebook in advance.. all songs considered.

Now all the work is done and artwork ready to be printed (which will be unveiled shortly), I write this letter to you from a beautiful Greek island which I took a slow night boat to get to, Im resting my voice which i began to lose at the end of the album. Yesterday I met one of the three pelicans of the island on the beach they are only seen rarely and when you meet one you are blessed with good luck.. I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to be able to make this album, to have such a wonderful world wide wolfpack. I made this record as much for you as I did for myself.

With love, luck, sund4rk and riverlight xx Patrick Wolf

Kind of disappointed that this is being positioned in part as a reaction against electronic landfill music etc. because he's better than having to say things like that and knows how to write a damn good pop song, but he does that weird thing where he yo-yos back and forth between talking about how much he loves Britney/Girls Aloud/whatever and acting as though pop music is the bane of existence, so I'm sure it'll be another phase.

The reinterpretations should be quality and also BUFFY SAINTE MARIE.

+1. Buffy Ste. Marie omg omg omg

Right? Are you going to be in Montreal for his Pop show, or is he stopping in Toronto as well?

(although it's unclear if Buffy APPEARS on the album or just gets a co-write. I hope we get her voice, because it's maybe the only thing that could top that Marianne Faithful duet from Magic Position)

I have an awful, awful feeling I'm not going to like this. I tend to think that artists' first impulses are generally correct. That having constrained circumstances fuels creativity, and going back over old ground makes things less good rather than better. I mean, obviously I will listen, to challenge that view, but I don't think it bodes well.

if you don't like it, at least keep in mind that: "Its been a wonderful self assessment to make this album, extremely cathartic, Its left me a clear slate, head and heart to be able to move forward with the next 10 years."

it's a moment of reflection, and not an indication of direction. Lupercalia felt like the end of a particular musical journey, anyway, to be honest.

I'm also not sure I believe that. "I'm gonna retread old material" is often a sign of a block. But if this is his way of moving past it, good for him.

I agree WCC, but in Wolf's case I think it'll suit him? His records have been identity- and genre-experiments as much as they've been "filled with songs". Considering how inspired he's been by Mitchell et al., his arrangement decisions have decidedly been more contemporary (or at least, a hybridization). I'm very optimistic!

Tracklist appearing on various music store websites - not official but seems legit. Three off each album and then one song from the Brumalia EP. Nothing from the early singles and b-sides, which is a shame. This sort of re-recording/retrospective would have been a good chance to get Pumpkin Soup or Godrevy Point or something out to a wider audience, but it looks like a solid collection.

1. The Libertine
2. Vulture
3. Paris
4. Overture
5. Wind in the Wires
6. Oblivion
7. Bitten
8. Hard Times
9. Together
10. The Magic Position
11. Bermondsey Street
12. Bluebells
13. Teignmouth
14. London
15. House
16. Wolf Song

I mean, I'm not sure why we need a new version 'Bitten' or how 'Teignmouth' or 'Wind in the Wires', static beats aside, aren't already more or less an acoustic track, but we'll see soon enough

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17vvl8wngl64rjpg/original.jpg

Your search for "patrick wolf" "the magic potion" returned 160,000 results

First taste of the album = promo video with the re-recorded Overture (which was always acoustic, no? just very orchestral)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=3i-KqFCKa_c

The new version is nice enough, although I'm going to miss that stunning chamber quartet arrangement - one of my favourite bits of PW's string work.

However, per much of the thread earlier discussion, PW wandering around shirtless in a field continues to be a welcome sight.

Actually, with that warning, it's probably better that I don't watch this at work, hey? Heh.

well, it's not obscene. it's tasteful shirtlessness in a field.

shirtlessness while playing a harp and holding a pistol and stuff.

My reaction to PW shirtlessness is probably NSFW, mind.

OK, his ~voice~ is just like lying in a pool of warm sunlight and having someone poor honey all over your mind. Delicious.

also, I know this is so silly but HOW DO I TAG THIS. The songs all have the same names as earlier songs and aren't being called (Acoustic Version) or whatever and calling them (Riverlight Version) or (sund4rk Version) would be really silly and cumbersome and I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO.

How about Overture (2012)?

Why do you have to rely only on the song title tag for identifying what you're listening to?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3qlGjtotjc

I like this.

Would really like a whole covers album by this dude.

Yo, WCC, pictures of PW with exposed chest and blunderbuss in the sleeve of his new self-covers record. And one of him in the bath, too. Albeit just his airily blurred face.

Anyway, sund4rk/Riverlight. Just arrived. Just listened to it. Acoustic versions of his "hits", or as close to hits as he has. Absolutely beautiful in terms of arrangements and performances and recording, as you'd expect. Not sure how much it'll get played, but the versions of Paris and London and Wolf Song might become my defaults (seldom go back to that first album). Shows him as a very, very accomplished songwriter and, as I've been prattling on about for aeons, an absolutely exquisite singer.

Anyone else got it?

Blunderbuss not a euphemism, btw. He really is holding an olde worlde gun.

He was in the video as well, though, wasn't he? It was more than a bit Dandy Highwayman if memory serves.

I saw the show and it was good to brilliant. Songs I've never cared much for were transformed into beautiful things. Not so surprisingly I suppose he's a good harper, I could've listened to him play it all night

Like but don't love the album now that I've had a few weeks with it. New arrangements work best with the older stuff, worst with stuff from The Bachelor. Lycanthropy is still better messy and glitchy but its nice to have the version of Paris that he's been playing live for ages on record. WitW tracks fare best mostly because they're closest in songwriting and vibe to the tone of this whole project. Bluebells is devastatingly gorgeous. I understand the point of the new political Bermondsey Street but it made me cry more when it made its point less explicitly (but still that's very Patrick cf Count of Casualty etc.)

Overall a pretty good stopgap and something he probably needed to do but I still don't know where he's at or where he's going.

The live set in Montreal was stunning though. We got Empress and Hazelwood (although no Godrevy Point or Pumpkin Soup - one day I will hear those live)

Pop montreal had weird one hour set limits even though he was a headliner so it was a relatively short jazz bar set but quite lovely for all that.

swearing about that short set, I was hopping locations and caught the last two songs. not a huge patrick wolf fan, but that was an amazing venue/artist match

gorgeous. sigh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVYjxocJcxI

Still my favourite.

http://sickmouthy.com/2013/03/06/patrick-wolf-wind-in-the-wires-2005/

Saying that, though, I'd love him to make a full on Germanic / synth / disco / Moroder album.

Love that post nick, that's my favourite too. And over the past year, Lupercalia has somehow grown to become my second favourite PW album. It's a really confident, contented adult record - Peter Pan all grown up.

Yeah, I'd probably pick that as my second favourite too.

Although I reckon if you amalgamated the best tracks from Lupercalia and The Bachelor you'd have something really astounding.

Those two records are my favourites!

I've always liked his voice but as a singer he's progressed in leaps and bounds

magic position is my favorite, hits all the wonderland vibes most successfully for me esp. from "bluebells" onward

The Bachelor is just a little overlong for me, and perhaps a touch too grand. There are one too many songs like Damaris that go on for five+ minutes.

pop music in general needs more mystique, i guess that is the main lesson i have learned from him

After passively ignoring his existence for years and years, I now can't get enough of this homo.

ok.

FINALLY.

yesss

Haha, no one had brought him to my attention before. However you are responsible Alex, I had remembered you made Lycanthropy your number 1 Pitchfork People's List choice and picked it up on impulse from a second hand store.

I should listen some more. I really love a few singles and sadly only made it into the last minutes of a festival performance... which were great.

First three albums are solid. The Magic Position is my favourite these days.

Last two albums are very good too, albeit in different ways. The Bachelor is slightly overlong perhaps, but there are some amazing songs on it. The opening trio ar fabulous.

yeah magic position is my favorite as an album but there are really good songs on all of them

I can't hear "House" without thinking of alex.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/apr/12/patrick-wolf-on-the-car-accident-and-his-comeback-it-completely-whacked-me-out-for-six

Miss this big guy.

Ooh thanks for the share. Love him so much.

he was hit by a car while on holiday in Venice

talk about unlucky

Guessing he was in Venice Mestre

so great to hear him again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3QmELbV1C8

"Nowhere Game"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5st6sAjBi9s

Really lovely, very happy he's back. EP coming in April.

Really love this new EP.

yeah it's great, almost feels like an album's worth of ideas. glad he made room for something like "Acheron."

yes agreed

I had no idea that this was a thing that existed but it’s marvellous - feel like it weaves together vibes from both Lycanthropy and sund4rk and Riverlight i.e. his earliest and most recent work (although the latter is over a decade old now).

going to be honest here— this is the first time i have ever listened to him, downloaded this on a whim because i saw it on a list and the description sounded like something i needed. then i… didn’t listen to it at all until exactly the moment i needed it, just a deeply emotional listening experience for me. (as mentioned on other threads i have been going through some stuff).

have downloaded a few of the other albums, pretty stoked about it

oh wow. some amazing music awaits!

The new EP is actually my favourite release of his… period? The approach feels unmoored from whatever gravities that were affecting the trajectory of his 00s output, and his voice has grown so rich, it’s terrifying how gorgeous it has become

yeah, absolutely enamored of his voice and when he goes into his low register especially.

"Nowhere Game" shares some musical and lyrical themes with "Worrywort". Glad it doesn't share much in production. Agree that the ep is fantastic.

Love the whole EP but really "Dodona" is just incredible.

Wow, this is really good stuff. His voice has a David Sylvian quality. Excellent arrangements.

yes!

https://www.stereogum.com/2295617/patrick-wolf-announces-first-new-album-in-13-years-crying-the-neck-hear-dies-irae/music/

Glad to have him back.

looking forward to the new one— i just relistened to Night Safari for the first time in a year or so, and it still hits.

https://sickmouthy.wordpress.com/2025/02/28/on-the-night-safari-by-patrick-wolf/

hey, coincidence— i just listened to this for the first time in over a year, and it remains a stunning piece of work. i still think “Dodona” is the most effective track for me— “i shall give no more to the hollow” and “happy birthday to the never get out of this now” still make me tremble when he sings them— but i appreciate this write-up. thanks for sharing…. with one quibble: the EP is five tracks, not four!

oh and of course i got a lyric wrong, the happy birthday line is from Nowhere Game, not “Dodona.” i guess “Dodona” seems to showcase his voice the most, which might be why i adore it

I think I forget Acheron is a track in its own right!

Crying the Neck out today and very, very good so far.

love the few tracks i have heard, waiting to get home to download and listen properly

as fgti notes upthread, his voice truly has become something else as he’s aged

His voice might have aged but looking at the sleeve he doesn’t seem to have aged.

Having seen him live a month ago, he definitely has, but he’s also very obviously clean and healthy now. He looks very well.

We met up a couple times last year. He looks fantastic and is super physically active down in Kent, also, swimming and running a lot. Just the loveliest man imaginable.

The album is marvellous and I am so, so happy for him.

https://sickmouthy.wordpress.com/2025/06/15/patrick-wolf-crying-the-neck/

Interview in the Times today; reveal of two documentaries coming out about him. One short album making of, one feature length.

the second one narrated by Tilda Swinton!

Have been playing this his a huge amount over the last couple of weeks, alongside his back catalogue, and this isn’t just a strong comeback, I think it’s his best record, right up there with WITW. Genuinely really awesome.

listened for the first time today, and i think it’s his best, too.

(tho i hate the Zola Jesus collab track, only weak point on the album afaic)

As someone who’s dealing with how to process several years of quite intense and prolonged trauma, this album(and The Night Safari) is an absolutely incredible thing.

Saw him at the Minack near Lands End last night, doing Wind in the Wires (plus all his other songs about standing on cliff tops). The moon was up, you could hear the waves on the rocks. Astonishing.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/sep/07/patrick-wolf-review-minack-theatre-cornwall?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

It was all that and more. His sisters vocals on Teignmouth were astonishing.

It sounds/looks incredible. After all this time, I do think WITW holds up as his masterpiece - Teignmouth is def my OPO Wolf

Photos look amazing, once in a lifetime event. I wonder if date was picked so there’d be a full moon.

https://sickmouthy.wordpress.com/2025/09/10/patrick-wolf-at-the-minack/

https://sickmouthy.wordpress.com/2025/09/10/patrick-wolf-at-the-minack/

^whoa!

nowhere so scenic, but turns out i'm seeing him twice this week. first time(s) since 2009 :O

Saw him last night. Spectacular show. Encore of “Last of England,” for which I have a new respect.

great song. really nails the dramatic ending as well

I admit that upon a few further listens, I do think this is his best work, but I also don’t think his work is for me. Seems like Night Safari was an anomaly.

New song The Beast released to streaming platforms this week.