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Want Two

Want Two: Encyclopedia - Want Two

Want Two is the fourth album by American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright. The album was released on November 16, 2004. Four of the tracks on this album were released in the summer of 2004 as the EP Waiting for a Want on the iTunes music store. W2 is, according to the artist, the darker sibling of 2003's [[Want One]] its subject matter concerned with "the world we live in" (RW Geffen Bio) after 'One's focus on the intensely personal. For the artist's song selections here show his range to be broad ...

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Want Two - Track listing

Want Two, Want Two - Track listing

Want Two: Encyclopedia - Want Two

Want Two

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Rolling Stone 12/15/04

Want Two is the fourth album by American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright. The album was released on November 16, 2004. Four of the tracks on this album were released in the summer of 2004 as the EP Waiting for a Want on the iTunes music store.

W2 is, according to the artist, the darker sibling of 2003's [[Want One]] its subject matter concerned with "the world we live in" (RW Geffen Bio) after 'One's focus on the intensely personal. For the artist's song selections here show his range to be broad almost to a fault, the range veering from romantic ballad ("Peach Trees") to tragic ballad ("This Love Affair"), to sophisticated pop ("The One You Love"), to third person/first person narrative lament ("The Art Teacher"), to personal tongue in cheek manifesto ("Gay Messiah"), to classical pop hybrid ("Memphis Skyline"), to songs beyond category.

These number two and both are remarkable: written at the start of the Iraq war, "Agnus Dei" opens the proceedings with a peace prayer heavily reminiscent of an imam's call to prayer, while "Old Whore's Diet," the piece that bookends the set, is an eccentric, extended minor key who-the-hell-knows-what of a song construction. Both pieces show Wainwright's desire at this stage of his short career (thus far) to reach out experimentally in terms of both style and content.

The variegated approach evident here, however, causes the overall effect of the record to be somewhat less than the sum of its parts, but this said, the quality of the songwriting is absolutely top of the range at many points. "Waiting For A Dream," in addition to its exquisitely poised chord progression and effortless melodiousness, is intensely dramatic thanks to a superb arrangement. This proves that Wainwright can deliver pop music of considerable weight, adding ballast to his dazzling ability to dash off such lighter, though luscious pleasures as "Little Sister." Complete with string quartet arrangement, this is the sort of piece that enables cynics to dismiss him as dilettante dabbling with different styles as if to submerge the fact that his gifts, though broad, don't run deep.

On Want Two however, the depth is there, not just in terms of the emotional range of the immaculate singing and the settings for each song, but in the scope of pieces as "Memphis Skyline" (his tribute to Jeff Buckley), "Agnus Dei" and "Waiting For A Dream." His chord constructions are also often exemplary, lending beauty and interest almost throughout ("Peach Trees" and "Hometown Waltz" might be exceptions). For confirmed fans, there is weight in the lyrics too, as Wainwright focuses the record on planetary concerns. "I feel every songwriter should attempt to represent the era in which he or she lives," he says, "and we're in an era where the world is entering puberty which of course means that it is overdramatic and awkward. It was funny to see after I was able to get my life in order what an utter mess the world is in." (RW Geffen Bio) This said, Want Two is not a thorough exploration of world politics. Much of the material is still reflective of the artist's inner life and is none the worse for that. However, his decision to direct some creative energy on his external world reveals an artist who, now over 30 (he was born July 1973), is coursing steadily towards artistic maturity.

Though the collection does not hang together especially well -an inevitable result of this smorgasbord of contemporary music -such is Wainwright's intelligence and proclivity for taste and invention, the album stands as somewhere between object lesson and masterclass for up and coming artists in terms of how to write and arrange the modern popular song and beyond. In an age where sheer musical talent is a vastly underrated currency, Want Twosuggests once again that God hauled Rufus to the front of the queue when He was dishing out the gift of musicality.

Quoted sources from Rufus Wainwright's official website.

Notes. Mother Kate McGarrigle and aunt Anna (McGarrigle) both perform and sing on Hometown Waltz. Antony of 2005 Mercury Prize winners Antony and the Johnsons sings lead vocal alongside the artist on Old Whore's Diet. The initial UK version of the record contains bonus live tracks, Coeur de Parisienne - Reprise d'Arletty and Quand Vous Mourez de Nos Amours. The latter is an essential addition for the collection of the serious Wainwright fan for this magnificent example of Rufus the chansonniere, singing a work of unusual quality. The song was penned by French-Canadian songwriter Gilles Vigneault and is notable for the dreamlike profundity of its lyrics.