Rufus Wainwright

Epic and beautifully orchestrated, dark at times and playful at others, Rufus Wainwright’s fifth studio album “Release the Stars” is further proof of how he deserves his burgeoning popularity. However, if his voice irritated you in the first place (like me), or you prefer his covers to his original songs, this is most certainly not your sort of album. For lack of better albums (that I’m aware of on a very quick scoot through Amazon), this is my album of the week.

I can recognise that Rufus is a one-in-a-million talent, and that this album is his best one to date, however personally I’m not a big fan. His voice grates against me, and I find him whiney at times, but that shouldn’t detract from his skill. My boredom is another’s excitement, and vice versa.

Opening with “Do I Disappoint You?” it conjures up imagery of a fantastically vivid stage show journeying through a jungle, such is the vibrancy of it, with full orchestral sounds evolving slowly.

“Between My Legs” is my personal highlight of the album, joking, camp, livelier than many of the other numbers and quite possibly one of the most chart friendly songs on the album.

“Not Ready to Love” is one of the most melancholic songs since Jeff Buckley’s ‘Hallelujah’, slowly moving into “Slideshow” which brings the tempo up again.

Overall, a mixed bag for me – genius and innovative, yet grating and a bit too classical for my liking, Rufus is undoubtedly back with a big (camp) bang, but don’t expect me to be going to see him live. Great, but not for me.