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Rufus Wainwright - Release the Stars

Rufus Wainwright, originario de Nueva York y nacido en 1973. Su familia es altamente musical hijo de los cantantes de folk Loudon Wainwright III y Kate McGarrigle, y además hermano de la cantante Martha Wainwright. Su música tiene muchas tendencias marcadas principalmente basadas por la ópera y teatro musical.

Abiertamente homosexual y victima de una violación durante su niñez. Su música esta llena de una gran tonelada de sentimientos, puedes encontrar melancolía y felicidad (dependiendo del estado de ánimo en que te encuentres).

Release the Stars es su más reciente trabajo de estudio, con el cual lanzo el sencillo Going to Town. Esta lleno de elementos de usados en los musicales cosa que le da una característica peculiar y especial. El disco esta lleno de anéctodas por ejemplo la canción Tulsa fue escrita justo después de que el mismo Rufus conocierá al vocalista de The Killers, Brandon Flowers en un bar.

You taste of potato chips in the morning
Your face has the Marlon Brando club calling
And who would have thought that I'd owe it all to Tulsa?
And that fat guy with the green shirt that we both signed together
Once he hears the song, won't live it down forever

Como nota personal y mental; debo de aceptar que lo estoy descubriendo y empezando a apreciar su trabajo. Aparte el clima en Monterrey esta algo nublado y lluvioso así que se presta a escucharlo.

Recomiendo: Tiergarten, Nobody's Off the Hook, Between My Legs

Tracklist:

1. "Do I Disappoint You"
2. "Going to a Town"
3. "Tiergarten"
4. "Nobody's Off the Hook"
5. "Between My Legs"
6. "Rules and Regulations"
7. "Not Ready to Love"
8. "Slideshow"
9. "Tulsa"
10. "Leaving For Paris No. 2"
11. "Sanssouci"
12. "Release the Stars"

Video: Going to a Town

Aí, fui ouvir o bendito disco. Na boa: as faixas ímpares não são exatamente muuuuuuito boas, mas são legaizinhas e muito superiores às faixas pares, com exceção de Slideshow, que soa como faixa ímpar.

Se os demais discos forem assim, tenho uma sugestão para o Rufus: lançar um The Best Of Odd Songs (O Melhor das Canções Ímpares). Acho que seria sucesso! Pense nisso, rapaz...

Release The Stars is one of my favourite Rufus Wainwright songs, and definitely one of my faves from his current album of the same title. I saw this performance whilst I was in Tulsa last year on the day it was recorded on the Letterman show. I was expecting "Going To A Town" to be performed, but then BANG! out he comes with Release The Stars.

I was suitably blown away at both Sydney shows this year when he performed this song to open the shows. Such pomp and a great tale in the lyrics.

Rufus Wainwright has been nominated for best International Male Solo Artist at the Brit Music Awards to be held at Earls Court in London on Wednesday night, February 20, 2008. He has been nominated for the single Going to a Town, from his album, Release the Stars (2007). Described by Robbie Williams as "the talent I want to turn into," he comes from an acclaimed family of folk musicians (his mother is Kate McGarrigle and his father is Loudon Wainwright III).

He has been befriended by artists ranging from Elton John to Debbie Harry and Neil Tennant. However, relatively early in his musical career, expressions of intense, flamboyant extravagance and narcissistic self-absorption drove Wainwright to the very edge of self-destruction. His career almost ended abruptly because of his substance abuse, which led him to enter rehab in 2002. Recalling those days, he has described how the journey back to sanity, back to normality, has been pretty tough for him.

It is because of those harrowing past experiences that Wainwright is desperate not to waste his chances all over again. Reviewers who have watched him get ready to perform now have remarked that looking at him prepare you see a diva, but you also see a perfectionist. One of the reasons other musicians have come to like him so much is because he is a flawed hero. At London's Brit Awards ceremony, Wainwright will be in his element. Mika, who is expected to walk away with several awards, is one of Wainwright's most dedicated fans.

[video 7774 w=435]

Rufus Wainwright: Going to a Town

The music video presented below is a version of Hallelujah, which was originally performed by Leonard Cohen. It was recorded live at the Tribute Concert for Leonard Cohen that was held in Australia at the Sydney Opera House in 2005. The recording features Rufus Wainwright, his sister Martha and friend, Joan Wasser. This particular performance of Hallelujah is remarkably touching for its candid emotional tone of simple, natural dignity.

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Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Joan Wasser: Hallelujah

The final video shown below is from a documentary that aired on England's BBC Channel 4 in 2005. This particular clip from the documentary focuses largely upon the period of time related to Wainwright's substance abuse difficulties, the people who helped him get through that wearisome phase, and his re-emergence from the dark and deadly pit of escape back into the real world.

[video 7740 w=435]

All I Want: A Portrait of Rufus Wainwright

Celebrating Rufus Wainwright: A Revered Diva and Flawed Hero

Technorati: Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, Joan Wasser, Leonard Cohen, Brit Awards, Brit Music Awards, Canada, London, England, Britain, Great Britain, United Kingdom, Australia, The Chelsea Hotel, art, multimedia, photographs, photography, gallery, photo-gallery, slideshow, music, songs, Going to a Town, Release the Stars, Hallelujah, entertainment, videos, movies, documentary, films, All I Want, A Portrait of Rufus Wainwright, music video, culture, cultural, gay, gay life, gay rights, gay pride, GLBT, social, social life, society, news, world news, world

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Dicen que el arte es subjetivo.

Puede que sea cierto.

Pero "Release the Stars", el último trabajo de Rufus Wainwright, es el mejor disco de los últimos diez años.

Eso no es subjetivo.

Y es absolutamente cierto

For the record, Rufus has been nominated for a Brit Award in the best male performer cat. And this quote from an Aussie paper just came in from a friend in Adelaide 'Incredibly talented troubadour Rufus Wainwright, is one of the most splendid live talents on the planet right now.'

Naan

p.s. I said to him upon his return, "you're back on terra firma" he laughed and shot back with "you mean terra infirma."

Yours truly doing his cheesy best for the nearest thing to a pose with Rufus. He was not posing for photos last night abut said he was happy for photos to be taken whilst signing autographs.

My highlight though was planting a kiss on his cheek and giving him a hug. I get one shot at this life, no certainty that he will be back, a beautiful friend in Pakistan (she loves Rufus) who gave me a reason to do what I think I would have done regardless....and what's the worst Rufus would do, leave town? He was doing that this morning as this was his last of the two Sydney shows.

He has the softest, most supple cheek - one that babies butts would struggle to contend with. One can tell that Rufus looks after his skin with only the finest of fine skin care products. I would hate to think what it would be like if he were straight!!

Overall, a great night. The show felt a bit flatter in energy than the first night and the set list was identical. Not that it matters, as it is not often that I get to hear his most incredible voice in an actual live performance, and not via DVD or some hacked up job posted on YouTube from someone sitting in row Q and coughing their lungs out.

Thanks for the magic Rufus.

Last night I attended the first of the two Sydney shows that Rufus Wainwright is playing at The State Theatre. Have been looking forward to this for a long, long time.

Never thought he would be back in Australia for an official tour after being here for the Leonard Cohen "I'm Your Man" tour back in January 2005. Am fortunate enough to also be attending the final show tonight and looking forward to more of the magic from last night. A truly fantastic concert by a man who is a natural and very charismatic entertainer.

Set List

1. Release The Stars
2. Going to a Town
3. Sansouci
4. Rules & Regulations
5. Matinee Idol
6. The Art Teacher
7. Tiergarten
8. Leaving for Paris
9. Between My Legs
   (Short break)
10. The Consort
11. Do I Disappoint You
12. Foggy Day
13. If Love Were All
14. Beautiful Child
15. Not Ready To Love
16. Slide Show
17. Macushlah
18. 14th Street
    (Encore)
19. I Don't Know What It Is
20. Poses
21. Get Happy
22. Gay Messiah

Bliss. The only other song that I would love to hear him perform tonight is Go or Go Ahead. Perhaps even California or Tulsa. Will see. Either way, I will be very happy and am fortunate to be one of the few who has tickets to the two shows. Me is happy.

Update (31 Jan 08): The SMH Online review of this of this show.

Why 18 you ask? I honestly don't know. But I've chosen now so I have to stick to it. I was only going to do ten but it seemed nice to give a little shout out to some further albums and also, I feel like much past 18 and the number begin to become less meaningful. I really couldn't tell you past eighteen why anything would deserve to be the number of places above anything else. Anyway.

This list is again based on albums released in the UK during 2007 and therefore, I know on in particular which will rankle with American readers on that point, is not based on those to have arrived in the US this year. Apologies for this. I cannot tell when this wrong will finally be righted and albums released in our countries on the same day.

Again, as with all the lists. If you see anything you want to know more about, don't hesitate to ask in the comments. Enjoy. Next week will see the list for songs of the year which will be long and less well written. Look forward won't you?

18. Grinderman - Grinderman

So Nick Cave streamlines the most aggressively middle-aged and cantankerous of his Bad Seeds, strips them to base instruments and unleashed the finest garage punk record of the year. In thrall almost fully to the brilliance of The Stooges, the abrasive guitars and thumping, sexually-charged vocals unveils Cave's heavier aural side to partner his lyrical darkness. Best Track: No Pussy Blues

17. Rufus Wainwright - Release The Stars

An opulent melodrama in which Wainwright casts himself as the damsel at its centre, searing through intensely personal themes and arriving on the other side draped in gold and glorious rain. A huge, semi-operatic mansion of an album, this sets Wainwright alongside the Scott Walkers and Billy MacKenzies of the world as a chronicler of great sadness through enormous music. Best Track: Slideshow

16. Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, You Are The Destroyer

Kevin Barnes had for years toiled away as the key figure in Of Montreal's Paisley psych popsicles but in the past few years has discovered the joys of full, monolithic tunery and came into full bloom on this devastatingly brilliant album. It all centres around the astounding 'Past Is A Grotesque Animal', a motorik Neu-indebted work of propulsive genius, all filtered through Barnes' kaleidoscope eyes. Best Track: Past Is A Grotesque Animal

15. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

They could never have hoped to capture the impact of Funeral again but Neon Bible is a strong attempt. While it lacks the raw, personal catharsis of its predecessor, the record is quite breathtaking on its own terms. The songs are bigger, stronger and politically furious, only really lacking the sense of self the first had to truly draw its audience into the mix. Still, you have to think that number three will be just beyond belief. Best Track: No Cars Go

14. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

While Ga x 5 isn't as satisfying as previous Spoon albums, the taut white funk remained tight and the songs managed to find some of the expanse explored on Gimme Fiction, if without the full consistency of that album. 'The Underdog' though might be there finest ever song while the compact whole, while insubstantial, packs a mighty punch which seems to have futher propelled Spoon towards the big leagues they still seem unsure they want. Best Track: The Underdog

13. Kings of Leon - Because of the Times

For a short time this year, I was absolutely in love with this album. There previous had been a true grower, sneaking up in time to take its place among my recent favourites. This doesn't quite manage it due to a sense of inconsistency and a lack of real peaks but it does contain some fabulous, chugging records and some of the year's absolute best vocal performances. Best Track: 'On Call'

12. Liars - Liars

I used to absolutely hate Liars. Pretentious tuneless nonsense. For album four, they set about to prove me wrong by finding their inner OMD and JAMC, churning out an album filled with menacing guitars and fuzzed up, leather jacket wearing New York art punk. Yet far from the spindly excesses of previous years, they complimented it all with a terrific, full noise and created their best yet. Best Track: Freakout

11. Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala

Just the most sugar-meltingly lovely record of the whole year. Lekman constructed an arch-pop masterwork in the tradition of Paul Simon and provided a selection of downhome, keenly observed stories of love and cardigan-clad lust. A just gorgeous album to while away the hours drinking cups of tea and thinking about the girls whose parents hated you while spilling crumbs all down your woolly jumper. Best Track: Postcard to Nina

10. Radiohead - In Rainbows

There is nothing more to write about this. Yes, it did change the music industry. Yes, it is a very good record. No, it is not a patch on their two previous peaks, The Bends and OK Computer. Yes, it is low-key, quite sexy and sounds more like a Thom Yorke record. And Yes, it is absolutely worth listening too again and again because repeated plays reveal this as their most sensuous, lush record to date. Best Track: House of Cards

9. The Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil

Skronky garage rock chugging from the bayou on the year's most enjoyably old fashioned release. While Black Lips are hardly revolutionary, they play with a swagger and confidence which made me immediately fond of them while this albums continues to impress further upon repeat listens. They ain't reinventing the wheel, but they are rolling along just fine. Best Track: Oh Katrina

8. Bjork - Volta

Bjork is one of those women in song who I am just a little bit in love with. I feel the same about Cat Power and Joni Mitchell but while I think time with them would consist of acoustic guitars, great bourbon and cigarettes, Bjork is an altogether different proposition. Streamlined by working with Timbaland, she delivered a breathless album of future-pop and space-torch ballads. Best Track: Innocence

7. PJ Harvey - White Chalk

I'm not in love with PJ Harvey at all, mostly because she frightens me greatly but this record, her most overtly fragile and tingly one to date, is an emotional battering ram. The familiar themes of sex and death remains but are explored in a hazy fog of piano-led gentleness rather than abrasive Albini-guitars and screaming orgasm vocals. That she is a genius was already set but now, she shows she can be a gentle genius too while still pummelling you with her song. Best Track: White Chalk

6. Menomena - Friend and Foe

A strange beast this lot. A great live band capable of a titanic racket and slinky tunes and makers of a true grower for the year. First listen revealed little of what was to come but soon it came, a semi-epic album of fairly straightforward indie. Yet something is there, something indefinable which makes me return again and again. I can't explain it to you so I'll just say you should try them and love them. Best Track: Wet and Rusting

5. Panda Bear - Person Pitch

If Menomena was a bit of a grower, this was an overgrown garden of evolution. I hated this when I first heard, just couldn't understand the fuss. Now, it's pushing for higher in this chart as I write this. Moments on this headphone masterpiece are sublime, transcendent even as Noah Lennox carries the Beach Boys through sumptuous house textures and lushly constructed mood pieces. Best Track: Bros

4. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

A grown-up album of electronica and a truly great New York record, James Murphy really stepped up with this one. Delivering propellant grooves and epic Krautrock-inspired dancefloor monsters alongside pensive, reflective songs of aging, nostalgia and sadness. On the peaks too he provided both with 'All My Friends' the masterwork of his labour, a perfect dissection of the low after the years of high. Best Track: All My Friends

3. The National - Boxer

Their previous effort, Alligator, provided the midpoint between Springsteen and Tindersticks and was maybe the best album of its year. Boxer is more subdued, careful about its points and taking its time to create its atmosphere of 4am reflection. Best description of it all though comes from an unknown source; like Nick Cave wrapped in velvet. Sumptuous and worthy of breathing in. Best Track: Fake Empire

2. Battles - Mirrored

If there is anyone out there who thought that a math-rock supergroup would be among the top ten list of everyone who knows Tom, Dick and Harry, give them a round of applause. This record is really only math-rock in terms of categorisation, for it manages to transcend that at a canter. Battles, to coin this NME-esque hideousness in phrase, are the Led Zeppelin of math-rock, tight but loose with all the elements interacted with perfect precision and yet the feel of improvisation. Best Track: Atlas

1. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America

Out in the US last year but January for us, I haven't loved a record this much since Chutes Too Narrow by The Shins. Craig Finn spins his tales with the touch of a master, celebrating the teenage fuck ups and and beauty of the that experience with poetry, humour and jackhammer tunes. There just isn't a moment on the album out of place and, by some distance it contains the best lines of the year. Choice for now being "She was a real cool kisser and she wasn't all that strict of a Christian", a teenage dream in fifteen words. Best Track: Chillout Tent

Other notable albums from the year were made by: Arctic Monkeys, Iron & Wine, The Twilight Sad, New Pornographers, Yeasayer, Les Savy Fav, Band of Horses, The Shins, Beirut, Sunset Rubdown, Nicole Atkins, Bon Iver (out in UK next year), Handsome Furs, Bill Callahan, Thurston Moore, Rilo Kiley, The Bees, John Vanderslice, St Vincent, Dinosaur Jr, Richard Swift, Bright Eyes, Queens of the Stone Age, The White Stripes, The Black Kids (EP), New Young Pony Club, The Broken West, Caribou, Dirty Projectors, Jason Isbell, Gonzales, Kevin Drew, Lil Wayne, Kanye West (in places), Magik Markers, Scout Niblett, Marissa Nadler, Miracle Fortress, Neil Young, Noah & The Whale, Pela, Phosphorescent, Ra Ra Riot, Seasick Steve, Wilco, The Maccabees, The 1990s, Stars of the Lid, Patti Smith and probably more besides.

Although I had heard several songs by him over the years, I never got into his music until I saw him perform 'Vibrate' on Jools Holland in 2004:

Before I often dismissed him for being too over the top and whiney for my liking, but this modest song won me over. The beautifully mobile-phone-age-way of saying you're available to that particular person any time of day: "my phone's on vibrate for you".
It's so instantly recognisable and sang over the deceptively simple bass plucking (you'll need to check out the album version for that) it becomes a classic love song. Although Pitchfork disagrees with me, calling it a "cringeworthy attempt[...] to massage fragments of popular culture into his comi-tragedies". I guess it's a question of taste, but I quite enjoy the banal being elevated into a song with grandeur and strings.

I started listening to more of his music and, although the overly flamboyant side of the Wainwright spectrum is still not my favourite, found out there is much to love. Personal favourites include The Art Teacher ("here I am in this uniformish pant suit sort of thing"), Beautiful Child and from his latest album Release The Stars: Nobody's Off The Hook,  Going To A Town and Tulsa, the witty ode to Brandon Flowers, The Killers' frontman.

During his tour for Release The Stars, Rufus has invited people up on stage to accompany him during the spoken word part of the song Between My Legs. Anyone wanting to participate had to post their audition on youtube, which makes for some hilarious viewing! Watch a few auditions here, here and here. This Dutch girl, Michelle, gets to sing with Rufus on Tuesday in the Heineken Music Hal, good luck!

I'm looking forward to a bit of the Judy Garland tribute material he did a while ago, to this day I'm a sucker for the original Wizard of Oz! The concert is seated and our seats are way at the back on the balcony, but it should still be a lot of fun. Here's to getting camp in lederhosen!

Ich ziehe hier und heute zum ersten Mal Resümee über einen Tag mit Musik.

Rufus Wainwright klingt mir gerade in die Gehörgänge. Seine … ja, eigenartige, Stimme, von welcher man nie auch nur einen Fehler zu erwarten hat, erklärt mir, dass “nothing’s gonna change my world”. Seine Songs von Want One, Poses oder auch von Release The Stars sind meist gefühlvoll, zeitweise bombastisch (ich verweise hier auf das unglaubliche Agnus Dei). Mit seinem Sinn für geniale Musik, mit seinem Stil und seiner bombastischen Stimme verzaubert er mir schon seit langem mein Leben. (5 von 5)

Skunk Anansie. Eine Band, die es seit dem Ausstieg der Leaderin Skin, offiziell nicht mehr gibt. Eine Band, die eigentlich nur durch Skin Daseinsberechtigung erhielt. Mit ihrem Soundtrack-Hit “Secretly” von den Eiskalten Engeln erschienen sie zum ersten Mal in meiner Playlist. Erst da erkannte ich, dass ein Song, ja, genau ein Song öfter Mal auch vom Kommerz-Sender Ö3 gespielt wird. Hedonism. Zu meinem absoluten Favourite-Song mutierte schon schnell Pickin’ On Me. Skin hat eine unglaubliche Stimme. (5 von 5)

Partypeople Letters To Cleo. Sie erklärten mir in 10 Dinge, Die Ich An Dir Hasse, dass alles nur nach der Devise “I Want You To Want Me” funktioniert. Eine Band, ja … ähm … wie Wheatus, nur nicht so … schräg. Aber die Band hat nichts mit Songwriting oder unglaublicher Stimme zu tun. Ich muss zugeben, ich kenne noch viel zu wenig von ihnen. Aber mit den Songs Cruel To Be Kind oder Come On sind sie vielleicht eine gute Abwechslung zum komplexen Sound eines Rufus Wainwright. Mehr leider für mich noch nicht. (3 von 5)

The Cardigans. Begleitband zu Ryan Adams. Deshalb waren sie mir ein Begriff. Am Soundtrack des letzten Frühlings von NEON waren sie mit “I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer” vetreten. Und durch eben die 10 Dinge, die mir schon Letters To Cleo näher brachten, zeigten mir “War”. Ein wunderbares Lied von ihnen. Leider fehlt mir die große Anzahl an Titel von ihnen, um wirklich objektiv über sie zu urteilen. (3 von 5)

Incubus. War mir persönlich schon lange ein Begriff, aber erst durch die Fahrt mit einer Freundin zum Kino wurde ich auf deren Album Light Grenades aufmerksam. Man absoluter Lieblingssong wurde, wie war es anders zu erwarten “Love Hurts”. Der Hit des Ö3. Ja, nennt mich ruhig Kommerz-Typ. Der Song sagt doch nur die Wahrheit, auch wenn man von Incubus Tiefgründigeres als “Love Hurts, But Sometimes It’s A Good Hurt” erwartet. Ich find den Song schön, den Rest des Albums nicht schlecht. (4 von 5)

  Release the Stars

For me, new Rufus music doesn't come nearly fast enough. The 5th album Release the Stars came out mid-May and I missed it. Downloaded it from iTunes today and listening to it now. Right off the bat, Between My Legs is my favorite so far. I've already added it to the radio station without even hearing the entire album.

The exec producer is another big time favorite of mine; Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant.  Rufus, though greatly talented, and those that enjoy his music are truly devoted fans... still seems to be stuck in 'cult' status and needs a mainstream break. Not to come up with cookie cutter tunes for cash, mind you, but he's tried to tone down the operatic/Broadway/richly textured show just a bit. I hope it all works out. He deserves it. You know, just for fun, I wouldn't mind seeing what he could do with pop. Don't tell anyone I said that. I have no idea how Tennant, who did a Pet Shop Boys remake of the Village People's Go West, using a giant Gay boy's choir as a backdrop, concealed that resume item in the 'tone it down' interview. Maybe Rufus can hit a PSB song next.

You taste of potato chips in the morning
Your face has the Marlon Brando club calling
And who would have thought that I'd owe it all to Tulsa,
And that fat guy with the green shirt that we both signed together?
Who, once he hears this song, won't live it down forever

Your suit was the whitest thing since you know who
I fear that the savior I mentioned may be you
And who would have thought that I'd owe it all to Tulsa,
And that poor girl who waited in the rain for hours to meet me (not you, baby!)
Who, once she hears this song, won't live it down completely

And I owe it all to Tulsa, Oklahoma
This is just a reminder of the antique shop that I want to go back and visit when it's open
In Tulsa, Oklahoma
Just in case you don't appreciate this song about you

Quote Bob Evans after the premiere of The Godfather and a great after party where he was having a ball with Ali (unbeknownst that at this time Ali was already having the affair with Steve McQueen): "Any man who thinks he can read the mind of a woman.....is a man who knows nothing."

C'est vrai.