Today I bought Rufus Wainwright's CD 'Poses'

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People should write more songs about Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk.

I can't stop listening to this CD, and some of the tracks are making me feel all sort of emotional. It's great. Has anyone else listened to this?

― C J (C J), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 15:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I would sooner face an assassin's bullet...

No, seriously. Some of the arrangements are great, but he's too friggin' histrionic. Guess I should listen again.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I side with Jay Vee (only I'm not thrilled with the arrangements either).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 15:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I love Rufus Wainwright to pieces, arrangements histrionics and all - even the relative weakness of his lyrics is softened by how aching his melodies are. (The lyrics are OK, mind you; they're just not on par with the houses they live in.)

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 15:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Rufus Wainwright doesn't do much for me. His voice rubs me the wrong way. Too whiny or something.

― Cub, Wednesday, 4 June 2003 15:48 (twenty-two years ago)

A Jeff Buckley/Rufus Wainwright tour would have the worst experience ever in the history of creation. Or something close to it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 16:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Rufus is much more fun live though. Jeff Buckley/Damon & Naomi would be far more drab and painfull.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 16:47 (twenty-two years ago)

greek song is my favourite song
from 2001. hearing it for the 1st time off napster
early one monday morning was something
akin to coming up on a rollercoaster. *un*believable.
i converted at leat 3 other people
to the album because of it.

by all accnts at the london gig 2 weeks ago he brought
his mum on at the end to sing 'somewhere over the rainbow'.

astonishingly it was in nme's top 10 albums of that year.

― piscesboy, Wednesday, 4 June 2003 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)

The best $12 I've spent in years (not counting Twix ice cream bars). It seems like we have a thread on this record every other month or so, and I'm still proud to count myself among the pro-Rufus faction.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 18:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I sorta wish he was a brooding recluse instead of a silly party boy so the image would match the music more, but anyway yeah he's great.

― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 18:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Also I'm surprised at the lyrics comment! I'd agree that there are some I guess I'd say insterstitial lyric-problems where things don't tie together exactly right, but the album's got scads of good metaphors and line-level constructions, which is where I tend to be listening anyway. I like how he'll feminize himself -- "a little bit heiress" or "pretty as princes." I like that he's unafraid of mundane details, which most people seem to have trouble pulling off -- if it's a part of life, there's absolutely no reason Wainwright should the only person I can think of ever to mention Barnes & Noble in a song. I like his groany little self-deprecations -- the "no kidding" from "Poses" or "little me" drooling on "California" (though I suppose it's moments like this that help Ned consider him a little too "precious"). (Also from "California" -- "my new grandma Bea Arthur!") I like that he's one of seemingly few people who can actually handle a traditional metaphor, like "In a Graveyard" -- people all have themselves so convinced that these things are by-numbers and easy-to-do that none of them can actually do it.

Granted, sometimes he just gets opaque and moany -- don't ask me what "Evil Angel" is on about, cause I just like to pretend it's about Buffy and have my fun that way. But he can totally score at the right moments.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 19:01 (twenty-two years ago)

though I suppose it's moments like this that help Ned consider him a little too "precious"

It's not just moments, it's the whole thing. Really, he's about as fascinating an arch/art-pop figure as Eric Matthews, who bites the big one (but at least Wainwright isn't apparently a raging bigoted asshole like Matthews, I'll give him that).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 20:15 (twenty-two years ago)

it's great except "Shadows," which is hideous.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 20:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Dear Ned,

I poop on your so-called "opinion!"

Your pal,

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Rufus is awesome. Very talented and uses it. Poses is a delicious album. I only wish he'd get out a new record, already!

― david day (winslow), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 21:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I loved the first record; Poses just seemed a little too well-groomed and self-aware, and also the songs weren't as strong as on the debut. I'm more partial to straight piano stuff without heavy arrangement -- at least the arrangements on the first alb were interesting in a Van Dyke Parks-ish way.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 21:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Whereas on this rec it just seems gratuitous and unexciting.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 21:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I listen to Poses by Rufus Wainwright and I hear Harry Connick Jr.

― Alex Linsdell (Alex in Doncaster), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 21:28 (twenty-two years ago)

oh Rufus is not without his lyrical moments, it's just that as a lyricist he's leagues behind Rufus-the-melodicist. That whole "I suggest" clause of "Cigs & Chocolate Milk": ugh, and the "just until the fish start to smell" clause of "Valentine's Day" reeks (haha) of giving up on finding a way to conclude the chorus - he should've called in Stephin Merritt, or Franklin Bruno. I suspect though that The Rufus is surrounded by people who praise him in the strongest terms possible and that this stops him from polishing his lyrics a little more.

So, yeah, he can score sometimes (and make no mistake: I love Rufus Wainwright a lot a lot a LOT), but can you imagine how devastating he'd be if his lyrics were more disciplined? It'd be SCARY, is what.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 21:40 (twenty-two years ago)

It's not a patch on the debut though, is it?

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 22:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know, the Van Dyke Parks element of the first one - the HUGENESS of everything, the giant up-front trebliness of it - wore me down; I can only listen to the debut for twenty minutes before I need a rest. Poses on the other hand is a lot easier to digest. When I was a punk, I'd've called that a fault, but now I don't think so.

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 22:23 (twenty-two years ago)

the arrangements on the first alb were interesting in a Van Dyke Parks-ish way

If I'm not mistaken, didn't Van Dyke Parks actually do some of the arrangements on the debut? That would explain it then...

― Sean (Sean), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 22:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Some of them -- can't remember offhand which songs he worked on.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 4 June 2003 22:58 (twenty-two years ago)

'bout four of 'em, I think: "Millbrook," maybe the first one & maybe "Danny Boy"

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Thursday, 5 June 2003 00:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, and "Baby", too.

I really don't find him arch at all--he's such a goofball romantic. I think all his initial press, all that "classically trained opera-loving hothouse flower son of cult folkies!" business, might have given people the wrong impression. I mean, live, he's practically doing standup half the time.

I really hate the fact that he's one of those an-album-every-four -years artists.

― Arthur (Arthur), Thursday, 5 June 2003 00:46 (twenty-two years ago)

His debut is so much better than Poses that it isn't even funny. It's the PIANO, man!!!

― Evan (Evan), Thursday, 5 June 2003 02:45 (twenty-two years ago)

greek song is my favourite song
from 2001. hearing it for the 1st time off napster
early one monday morning was something
akin to coming up on a rollercoaster. *un*believable.

Aye.

― gazuga (gazuga), Thursday, 5 June 2003 03:41 (twenty-two years ago)

five years pass...

"greek song" is a velvet envelope, i will mail myself to 2009

― rox qua rox (roxymuzak), Monday, 15 December 2008 05:59 (seventeen years ago)

god i was tired last night

― rox qua rox (roxymuzak), Tuesday, 16 December 2008 03:24 (seventeen years ago)

one month passes...

Ok, so what is the term for this style of violin-playing in "Greek Song"?

― roxymuzak, Sunday, 18 January 2009 05:17 (seventeen years ago)

Is it like So. Indian classical-esque, or...?

― roxymuzak, Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:06 (seventeen years ago)

"gypsy"!?

― roxymuzak, Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:06 (seventeen years ago)

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