Music Millennium

Reviews:

Rufus Wainwright has had more press in his short career than most artists get in a life time, due in part to a back story made for the big screen. His parents are famous musicians-his dad is wise ass singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, his mom is Kate McGarrigle of the McGarrigle Sisters-but not famous enough to torpedo his own career, he's a good looking, out gay man who speaks freely to the press about his fascination with straight guys and drugs and he writes songs that combine operatic excess and Tin Pan Alley sentimentality into an always impressive package. He can belt out a show tune with the best of them, but mostly his vocals walk a high wire between desperation and resignation. "Oh What a World" is a world-weary lament Noel Coward would be proud of, driven by a lick from Ravel's "Bolero." The thumping tuba line and swelling orchestration almost overwhelm Wainwright's mush-mouthed vocals, making him sound even more lost and forlorn. "Vibrate," another classical theme, borrowed this time from Bizet's "Carmen," tells another tale of unrequited love, with a dash of salacious humor that makes one wonder if they're laughing with, or at, the singer. "Harvester of Hearts" sounds like a country torch song as composed by Brian Wilson, while "Movies of Myself" has a big Beatle-esque beat and combines Lennon's lyrical cynicism with a soaring McCartney-style melody.