Track Listing

1. Far Away
2. GPT
3. Factory
4. These Flowers
5. Ball And Chain
6. Don't Forget
7. This Life
8. When The Day Is Short
9. Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole
10. TV Show
11. Maker
12. Who Was I Kidding
13. Whither Must I Wander
14. Bring Back My Heart - Wainwright, Martha & Rufus
15. Baby
16. Dis Quand Reviendras Tu

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2650 in Music
• Released on: 2005-11-14
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
With her debut album appearing at the age of 28, Martha Wainwright has lived in a musical world since she was born. She posses a voice with timbres similar to her brother, Rufus, and to her mother and aunt, Kate & Anna McGarrigle. She also has a way of stretching syllables out for reasons at once musical and textual, very much like her father, Loudon Wainwright, from whom she's also inherited a bold autobiographical stance, albeit couched in her own particular poetics. A bracing confidence informs these thirteen songs, from the bright shiny pop of "G.P.T." and "The Maker" (with the unmistakable voice of Rufus on backup vocals) to the fragile balladry of "Whither Must I Wander." Martha Wainwright continues the family tradition of audacious debuts. -- David Greenberger

Album Description
This latest edition features three new tracks including a debut with her brother Rufus.

Martha Wainwright comes from a family that some would call "musical royalty." She is the daughter of Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III, and sister of Rufus Wainwright, yet she writes and sings with a style completely her own. After several tours as opener and band-mate for Rufus Wainwright, and appearances on albums by Rufus, the McGarrigles, Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes) and Linda Thompson, Martha made her own bold statement with the release of her EP BMFA earlier this year. The EP garnered rave reviews: The London Times called it a "tour de force" while The New York Times named it "a gorgeous teaser" to her forthcoming full-length debut. The release of that self-titled debut album takes things to a whole new level. An album of contrasts, Martha Wainwright features tracks filled with raw, fiery, passionate energy alongside unforgettable, hauntingly beautiful ballads.

Customer Reviews

easily the best new vocalist of the last ten years
martha wainwright proves on this album that despite all of her vaunted background she is a true original. the songs show great craft, especially BMFA which is perfectly written. and her voice is a wonder. it has the flexibility of mary margaret o'hara's voice and the emotional vastness of jane siberry but is also something completely hers. its really exhilirating the way it can just take off in the middle of a song and go wherever it likes yet still make complete musical sense.

for many years i've been grieving the fact that mary margaret o'hara hasn't been making music but with this album the gap is filled. but she isn't a copycat. like any true talent this musical vision is completely martha's own. and it seems to have sprung complete from her in a way which is very rare. truly wonderful.

More so-called bonus tracks
Dear Martha

There seems a Wainwright family trait of reissuing recently released CD's with bonus tracks.

How about showing some respect to the people who bought the original versions less than a year earlier? Are we supposed to buy them again? Or would you rather that next time we all just waited until the bonus version appeared.

04-Nov-07
Sorry that so many don't find this helpful, but I stand by my comment. What's the point of putting bonus tracks on a CD a year after the fans that have supported you have bought the CD? It shows a LACK OF RESPECT to your fans!

the best album i don't own
Martha Wainwright's thoughts and feelings are bared before our eyes in an amazingly honest, daring, lovely way in this album. That's what I think! And I love it. However, I don't own this album because it all sounds a tweeny bit similar to me. There are very few pop albums I have the stamina to listen to all the way through. I just don't think I could get through this. I would always be wanting to skip forward to BMFA, which is a screaming winner. "I've been stoked and poked but it's all smoke there's no more fire."

An album for anyone who's ever felt that way (aka everyone).