Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, September 12, 2003 Page: 46 of 68
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Dallas, TX 75205
(214)522-4137
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KITCHEN DOG THEATER
THE DALLAS VOICE &
LUCKY’S CAFE INVITE YOU TO
LUCKY DOG
NIGHT,
SEPT. 26
: FOR RESERVATIONS CALL
% 214.953.1055
OR VISIT OUR WEB SITE AT
' KITCHENDOGTHEATER.ORG
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I 3120 MCKINNEY AVE.
7 DALLAS, TEXAS 75204
SEPTEMBER 12, 2003 DALLAS VOICE
The newly sober
Wainwright emerges
with songs that reflect
his tumultuous days
spent in '‘gay hell."
By Gilbert Garcia
Pop Music Critic
Want One
Rufus Wainwright
Dreamworks
Call him what you like, but singer
and pianist Rufus Wainwright is no
pop musician. Ask yourself — what
pop artist in the past 40 years has
opened an album with a tango? The
barely-30-year-old son of folk
singers, Wainwright prefers opera to
pop, a trait that makes him some-
what of an anachronism. As a song-
writer, Rufus Wainwright is an old
gay man in a young gay man's body.
Though it wasn't evident at the
time, Wainwright's poppiest work
was probably his earliest. Recorded
with legendary producer Van Dyke
Parks (Beach Boys), Wainwright's
self-titled 1998 debut was certainly
different from standard piano pop,
but not radically so. The album was
very hailed by critics and listeners
alike, and even scored Wainwright
some radio play.
If anything, 2001's Poses was a restatement
of Wainwright's vision. Overall a darker
album than its predecessor, Poses was also
much more densely compacted, requiring
more time to unravel before a casual listener.
In the end, the album was more rewarding
than Rufus Wainwright, whose pop was
instantly charming, but seldom more than
that. The songs on Poses, by comparison,
weren't nearly as catchy, but eventually
proved far more affecting.
2003's Want One (titled to be followed to by
a sequel) finds Wainwright even farther afield
from contemporary pop. Not only that, but
Wainwright himself seems to be growing more
curmudgeonly with every record. On the
album opener "Oh What A World," he
bemoans fast trains and airplanes, and
"always traveling but not in love." On
"Vibrate" he seems to be channeling a man
twice his age, singing, "I tried to dance to
Britney Spears/ I guess I'm getting on in
years."
Having just recently emerged from what he
referred to in an interview as the "gay hell" of
substance and alcohol abuse, Wainwright is
also much more introspective on Want One.
Songs like "I Don't Know" and the title track
"Want" find Wainwright in assessing his own
life, while "Dinner at 8" has the young man
still raging against a father who left him as a
child.
With their operatic swells and oddly struc-
tured melodies, these aren't the sorts of songs
that will just jump out at you on first listen.
Instead, the songs on Want One reveal them-
selves a little bit at a time, only finally becom-
ing somewhat familiar after several listens.
None of these songs is likely to get him back
on the radio, but it may be that Wainwright is
just too good to be all that popular. As an
album, Want emerges as fully formed and full
of conflict as the artist himself. Give it a little
time, and you'll find yourself swept up in its
lonely, loving vision. T
TRUE GRIT
If she weren't so widely praised os o major song-
writing talent, Lucindo Williams might have gotten a
reputation as being difficult to work with. Actually,
she's gotten that reputation anyway. Though the 50-
year-old folk and country star has been making music
since the late 70s, her album output has been rela-
tively light due to a persistent perfectionist streak.
After a major debut in 1998, Williams took a full four
years to release a follow-up, 1992's Sweet Old World.
Her next album, titled Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,
would take even longer to emerge, six years, and
would have to be re-recorded from scratch at least
once before Williams would be satisfied with it. Her
unmistakable Oylan-esque vocal style and her
unflinchingly honest songwriting have made Williams
a legend even among her peers. Her latest release,
this year's World Without Tears has been called one of
the most emotionally raw albums she's ever recorded.
- G.G.
Gypsy Tea Room, 2548 Elm., Sep. 18. Doors open
at 7:30 p.m. $25. 214-744-9779.
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Vercher, Dennis. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 20, No. 20, Ed. 1 Friday, September 12, 2003, newspaper, September 12, 2003; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth616336/m1/46/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.