Product Description

In 1998, the music industry was inundated with recordings by the offspring of '60s and '70s icons. Chris Stills, Sean Lennon, Emma Townshend; nepotism ran unchecked, with varying degrees of aesthetic and commercial success. Rufus Wainwright, scion of acerbic singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright and Canadian songstress Kate McGarrigle, may share a nasal vocaldrawl with his father, but the songs here are closer to Brian Wilson, Randy Newman or Harry Nilsson than Loudon or Kate. The Newman/Wilson connection is underlined by the skewed, neo-Baroque string arrangements and co-production of Van Dyke Parks, whose sensibility seems to mesh perfectly with Wainwright's piano-based tunes.
Wainwright's debut finds him exercising considerable harmonic and compositional chops in the service of a vision that's closer in spirit to some of the eccentric, decidedly non-rock singer-songwriters of the early '70s (like those mentioned above) than anything current. His gift for the extended melodic line serves him well here. Lyrically, Wainwright is able to combine unsentimental passion with unpretentious imagery; no mean feat, even for veteran troubadours. This recording, substantive and rewarding as it is, portends a bright future.

Track Listing

1. Foolish Love
2. Danny Boy
3. April Fools
4. In My Arms
5. Millbrook
6. Baby
7. Beauty Mark
8. Barcelona
9. Matinee Idol
10. Damned Ladies
11. Sally Ann
12. Imaginary Love

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1809 in Music
• Released on: 2000-12-15
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 53 minutes

Customer Reviews

A Great Debut.... but hard work!
Rufus Wainwright is a musical and lyrical GENUIS, but.... I heard his albums in reverse order. This obviously being the last I had heard. Want I bought first the double album and it blew me away. The songs (even though all so very different) seemed to flow and you could not wait for the next one. Rufus debut was not like that. Danny Boy is a very painful song about his love for a straight friend that broke his heart, you can really feel his pain in the song. April Fools lifts the spirit of the album and stands out on this album, you hope to hear more songs like this on it, but there is not!! Also Beauty Mark (about his mother) is another magical song, talking openly about his sexuality. Even though I do not seem to rate it highly in my review I still give the album 4 stars for effort and bringing a refreshing style of music and lyrics. Definitely originality at its best....

Melanchloy and Theatrical
Listening to Rufus Wainwright's debut album is not only a pleasant esthetic experience, it's probably a very healthy thing to do to your brains and senses, like eating fresh salmon or avocado or viewing an Olafur Eliasson installation. His breathless vocals and guitar and piano arrangements fuse in cabaret-like compositions that ooze in through your ears and keep you from doing anyting else but listen.

His lyrics are frequently sad yet never dire, counting some very personal songs like Danny Boy, a love ballad, and Beauty Mark, a tribute to Rufus's own mother, folk legend Kate McGarrigle. Rufus's quite uncloseted sexuality is one of many themes his lyrics touch upon, but not to the point of tediousness; today he's arguably the most significant gay icon alive, at least for the younger generations.

The album's opening track, Foolish Love, epitomizes Wainwright's style by building up slowly and gradually, in different phases, until it reaches a theatrical and danceable pace. It's mellow, but definitely with a silver-lining, a confessional with wit and pop-sensibility, setting the tone for a fantastic debut album which a lot of people are discovering now, 8 years after its release.

A debut album has no right to be this good.
Although this is Rufus's first, it was the last of the 4 CD's I purchased. I confess I did so out of loyalty and completeness, not expecting it to compare with the wayward brilliance of the Wants.

What I heard exceeded my expectations by a mile, particularly once the sophisticated tunes have been given a chance to lodge in the brain.

The sound-world here is more straightforward than subsequent releases, very much piano-based with various band and orchestral backing. Comparisons with Billy Joel and Elton John are inevitable, and it's difficult to see how any fan of piano-based rock and pop could not enjoy this.

The first four tracks are simply perfect. Foolish Love, with its lush, segmented melodies, Danny Boy with its lagubrious rolling rhythm (in 6/8 time?), while April Fools is the Beatles song they never wrote.

The fourth song, In My Arms, is almost a duet with his sister Martha. Maybe I'm biased, but having Martha on backing vocals is like sprinkling magic dust on a song. Can't help thinking back to Emmylou Harris doing the same for Gram Parsons and Bob Dylan.

Other highlights are the graceful Barcelona, fully justifying its 7 minute length, and Sally Ann, a wistful show tune. There's not a song out of the 12 here that doesn't deserve its place on this impressive debut. Say what you want about his voice, Rufus's talent as a songwriter is undeniable.

Best time to enjoy: late afternoon/early evening.