Product Description

'Want Two' is the follow up to the 2003 release 'Want One' and completes Wainwright's original idea of recording a double album. A combination of mini-operettas, chamber pop, and classical work, the album's lyrical content draws on Wainwright's experience of relationships, drug abuse, and lifestyle.

Track Listing

1. Agnus Dei
2. The One You Love
3. Peach Trees
4. Little Sister
5. The Art Teacher
6. Hometown Waltz
7. This Love Affair
8. Gay Messiah
9. Memphis Skyline
10. Waiting For A Dream
11. Crumb by Crumb
12. Old Whore's Diet - Rufus Wainwright, Antony Hegarty
13. Coeur De Parisienne - Reprise d'Arletty
14. Quand Vous Mourez de Nos Amours

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1325 in Music
• Released on: 2005-03-07
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics
• Running time: 60 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
A wild card songwriter with a familial pedigree and an ever-expanding cult retinue, the raffish but assiduous Rufus Wainwright--outré, gay and sage--is not one to shy away from invigorating his songs with a lurid theatrical honesty. Want Two perhaps reflects Wainwright's revised priorities since stepping back from the recreational medication precipice. Opening number "Agnus Die"--a medieval Catholic liturgy given an eastern flavour and performed with Hungarian instruments--seeks spiritual laundering and clemency but this virtue is offset by the implied vice and self-loathing of grand finale "Old Whore's Diet", a brilliantly irrational sprawl of skewed genius taking in Latin-American grooves and a doomy operatic Radiohead-esque requiem. Between these polar extremes lies Wainwright's eye for improbable observational finesse. Few others could express the first lovestruck flush of teenage infatuation with such deliberate inarticulacy ("Art Teacher") or envisage the coming of a "Gay Messiah" dripping in testicular fluid. He's evidently an attention-craving naughty boy with a love of Serge Gainsbourg, Elvis Costello and harpsichords but on Want Two Rufus Wainwright makes sex, drugs, politics--and yes, belated redemption--sound positively velvety. --Kevin Maidment

Album Review
Picking up where Want One left off, Rufus Wainwright's Want Two is a deeply introspective, sometimes kinky and often personally critical set of mini-operettas that ruminate on his various relationships, drug abuse, and image in the media. Metaphorically liturgical and often classical in sound, Want Two touches on such inner-related themes as love, loneliness, sin and sacrifice. It's more focused than Want One and as such packs more of wallop both musically and emotionally. Musically, Wainwright has never seemed more in command of his muse. References to Nilsson, Brian Wilson and Randy Newman are a matter of course, but Wainwright's growth as a pop craftsman with his own unique lyrical voice--both conceptually and literally--makes such comparisons unnecessary. To these ends, lush string orchestras, cheery choirs and piping horn sections decorate the impeccably scored album and perfectly complement Wainwright's swooning vocals. Taken as a whole, Want One and Want Two work well together as a sprawling and ambitious double album that is camp, serious and utterly compelling. --Matt Collar, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

That Voice...
Hard as teak, soft as cotton, sinuous as corded muscle...to me, Rufus Wainwright's voice is a thing of beauty. Yet, on other days I think it sounds whiney, nasal and annoying. But I rather like the idea of a musician who is different every time I hear him.

As has been noted by others, this album is a bit of a patchwork affair that, perhaps, lacks continuity. However, it's a rich confection of an album and can be a little too overwhelming to contemplate in a single sitting.

Yet there's much beauty here...Peach Trees just seems to soar and soar. Memphis Skyline a moving paean to Jeff Buckley. And Waiting for a Dream has a strange, metronomic / woozy quality that quietly hypnotises.

If you're in the right frame of mind, this is gorgeous music.

Rufus rumpus
I'm still a little undecided about RW. There's no questioning the care he gives each song. The arrangements are classy even when it's just him and piano on the French language number near the end of this album. The lyrics too always have much resonance. But his voice, which is technically fine, does pall at times. Its nasal, droning quality is overt on 'Agnus Dei', an exquisite blend of East and West. On the next track, RW jumps to straight, beaty pop with caviare. No expense is spared. Thereafter, each track is fine in its own right, but RW's mix of drawl, drone and slur is a bit much after a while. His 'Dream' song, though, is inspired, while 'Old Whore's Diet' takes off in another direction, with its insistent lyric and latin rhythm. 'Want Two' is cut from the same cloth as its predecessor, but comes across more as a collection of disparate tracks, whereas 'Want One' is more of a unified tapestry. The songs are, on the whole, as good, but 'Want One' probably shades it.

A unique curiousity
Well, either "Mr Mongolian Bretsttew" has a sense of humour that only HE understands (note: he admittedly has many enemies) or he's 'many sandwiches short of a picnic'. I suspect a pleasant mixture of the two (see one of the previous reviews).

Admittedly Rufus has most certainly indulged himself on this recording, it's an aquired taste, and unless one is on the same plane as Mr Wainwright, it'll not resonate: most probably irratate to a degree, but you can't help admiring the man for his honesty and unique vision here. He took many risks and decided to make a record that was uncomprimising for him and his fans. That is the measure of an Artist. If you don't like it, listen to Britney Spears!

I, for one, have discoverd the music of Rufus Wainwright through this record, and whilst I admit it's slightly disjointed, there are some stunningly beautiful moments, both musically and lyrically. His voice is lovely, but doesn't necessarily correspond well with the various musical styles he employs. But hey! he seems to believe it, and somehow, although it really shouldn't make sense, somehow it works!

Nice to hear Anthony from the Anthony and the Johnstons contributing: a sublime, velveteen match.