Rufus Wainwright: WTF?

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Is it Piss-on-the-Piano-Troubadour-Year or something? For a critical darling, he sure takes a lot of shit from people all across the critical spectrum (or, at least, from the few people that have actually mentioned him on this board). Personally, I found his debut album to be a nice slice of showtune-like songstyling (with, of course, the single being the worst song on the album) (and the usual exemplary production / arrangement work by Jon Brion, with an assist from Van Dyke Parks, if I remember correctly). Soon, I hope to pick up a copy of his new album, which I'm sure I'll enjoy all the same.

Why the hate, people? Is it the Broadway vibe? Is it his distinctive voice? No, wait, lemme guess - it's because he SUCKS my BALLS, right?

― David Raposa, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Nope, no hate here. His second album is even better I think; less ornate, less dour, a bit more pop.

I don't even get that much of a "Broadway vibe". He's a unique singer-songwriter as far as I'm concerned. Kids these days can't handle a piano-based singer-songwriter with strings, I guess. It's not exactly what's all over the charts.

Just saw him open for Roxy Music, he was good. Also saw him drunk at a dive bar a few weeks back.

― Sean, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I actually thought his first album was nice but the production was awful

― Mike Hanle y, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Saw him open for Roxy Music too, he was funny and charming in his *Ari Onassis* ensemble. I'd go see him perform in a place smaller than the Theater at Madison Square Garden before I would buy one of his CDs.

― Lesley Higgins, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I like him. Who are these bastards who are defaming him?

― Ally, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Odd - Most ilm'ers a few RW-threads ago were pretty positive about Rufus - has there been a big sea-change? I was a hopeless groupie with his first release - but 'Poses' has too many cliche's for comfort ('Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk'!?)... Still love seeing him live - ubertalented, great voice, and charmingly smarmy, in that loungey self-congratulating kind of way (kinda like a queer sinatra).

― Jason, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've been liking a good deal of Poses over the past few weeks, and have had pretty much the opposite experience, hate-wise: I've been pleasantly surprised at how receptive people seem to his records, given the unfortunately major-label sheen obscuring his songwriting and performance. (In my dream world, he'd be recording those songs with just piano, vocal, and maybe a cello, viola, oboe and bassoon for the arrangements.)

I was just shocked to find myself sort of liking the fact that Poses follows the #1 cliche major-label singer/songwriter format: open with the single, close with a slightly automated "reprise" of the single. I deliberately avoided listening to that last track for several days, but it turns out to be not horrifying at all, and actually sort of operates in the good sense that a reprise is meant to. Who'd have guessed that?

― Nitsuh, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hate his lame untalented smug bullshit ass from here to kingdom come. There, you wanted hate, you got it. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Is that like a Breakfast Club irrational thing or do you want to expand, Ned?

― Ally, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Gee, Ned, could you BE any more non-judgemental?

― David Raposa, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can't get past Jon Brion, the showy melodies, and the trite-but- pretending-not-to-be lyrics. His voice, I like.

― Melissa W, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Agreed Mel. Brion must go. Let me produce that littel queen.

― Mike Hanley, Wednesday, 8 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

five years pass...

"I hate his lame untalented smug bullshit ass from here to kingdom come"

I salute you, Mr. Raggett

― timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 3 November 2006 07:28 (nineteen years ago)

but why? even if you hate him it makes no sense to call him untalented.

― jed_ (jed), Friday, 3 November 2006 10:53 (nineteen years ago)

yes, definitely not untalented

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Saturday, 4 November 2006 06:49 (nineteen years ago)

Why must he be so insufferable?

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Saturday, 4 November 2006 16:03 (nineteen years ago)

It would be so awesome if he did a duet with Matt Bellamy.

― Grey, Ian (IanBrooklyn), Saturday, 4 November 2006 23:40 (nineteen years ago)

Tickets to his forthcoming gig at London Palladium are going for £85. Face value. Who does he think he is, Madonna?

― braveclub (braveclub), Sunday, 5 November 2006 15:47 (nineteen years ago)

judy garland, actually. (aren't those the shows where he's doing 'live at carnegie hall'? i saw the nyc one and it was stupendous.)

― maura (maura), Sunday, 5 November 2006 16:57 (nineteen years ago)

...as for 'untalented.' ;-) That sounds more like typical enough angry impetuousness from me. Yes, he's technically talented, but in the same way that someone like Eric Clapton or Eminem is -- he has gifts that don't connect with me at ALL.

I don't feel as overwhelmingly annoyed with him as I did then; like my anti-Magnetic Fields jones at the time, it was more down to what I thought was a lot of overbearing 'BEST THING EVER!' praise to a terribly minor figure whose self-regard did not match the end results. My opinion on Rufus hasn't changed based on the songs I've heard since, and though I think no opposition between the two exists -- hell, maybe they're mutual admirers -- Kiki and Herb's performance I caught last year knocked the ball so out of the park for me in comparison. It's probably an appreciation of aesthetic of the kind that John Waters talked about when he said that Divine pissed off all the drag queens that just wanted to be Miss America, and if that kind of approach to art and humor works for me more in the end than another does, I will not apologize for it.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:30 (nineteen years ago)

i loved his first album a lot -- all that sprawling/loping stephen-foster-in-cabaret-drag stuff. great sound, great songs. i haven't paid all that much attention since, but what i've heard hasn't resonated with me in the same way. i really want to hear him tackle judy though.

― the starbucks in the forbidden city (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:36 (nineteen years ago)

but i do admit that a little of his voice goes a long way.

― the starbucks in the forbidden city (Jody Beth Rosen), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:39 (nineteen years ago)

I wish he'd enunciate a little clearer. Aside from a few songs, I like his interviews more than his albums.

― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:51 (nineteen years ago)

The album openers are usually pretty great.

― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 5 November 2006 17:54 (nineteen years ago)

I have a theory about Ned and this kinda music.

Well, sorta.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 5 November 2006 20:34 (nineteen years ago)

it was more down to what I thought was a lot of overbearing 'BEST THING EVER!' praise to a terribly minor figure whose self-regard did not match the end results as an excuse for typical enough angry impetuousness sums mine up.

― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 5 November 2006 20:43 (nineteen years ago)

my theory, that is.

― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 5 November 2006 20:44 (nineteen years ago)

Yay theories!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 5 November 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

You have nothing to worry about from the likes of Wainwright, gentlemen. He has recently taken the form of a young woman by the name of Joanna Newsom.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 5 November 2006 22:30 (nineteen years ago)

After the rectification of the Vuldranai, Rufus took the form of a large, moving Tor. Then, during the third reconciliation of the last of the meketrek supplicants they chose a new form for him, that of a giant Sloar! Many Shubbs and Zuuls knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the Sloar that day I can tell you.

― Zwan (miccio), Sunday, 5 November 2006 22:35 (nineteen years ago)

Yup. I can see the resemblance:

http://www.darkover.it/00sb/fotomie/zuul.jpg

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 5 November 2006 22:46 (nineteen years ago)

Fuck this. That St. Valentine's song is as timeless as Elliot Smith's "Waltz #2," or the Billy Bragg/Wilco and Randy Newman. The turn of this century was soft rock's unheralded peak.

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Sunday, 5 November 2006 23:15 (nineteen years ago)

For me Wainwright's problem was zealous marketing. Since he was prodded into a studio before he understood how to fit his unusual pipes over rococo arrangments, a lot of songs on the debut are either leaden or hysterical, sometimes at once. The L.A. studio rock of Poses still strikes me as the best accomodation.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Sunday, 5 November 2006 23:27 (nineteen years ago)

still my fave album of the decade WANT ONE is.

horse, courses etc.

― pisces (piscesx), Monday, 6 November 2006 14:09 (nineteen years ago)

I don't object to the voice or the attitude. But eighty-five pounds!

"I wish he'd enunciate a little clearer."

He seems to with the microphone close enough to his mouth to make it sound like he's singing at normal volume. So his breathing sounds unnaturally loud.

― braveclub (braveclub), Monday, 6 November 2006 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

'seems to mumble' that should read.

― braveclub (braveclub), Monday, 6 November 2006 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

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