Customer Reviews

Release The Stars

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

By now, I've completely given up on all attempts to discern any resemblance whatsoever between the musical stylings of Rufus Wainwright and that of his parents, Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. In their own time, both parents were musical iconoclasts as well, so I guess that is as much similarity as I am ever likely to discern. Judging from his lyrics and a few comments that he's made to the press, Rufus is too much the solipsist to resemble anyone else at all, least of all his parents, but that turns out to be a very good thing. "Release the Stars" is such a unique and thoroughly realized musical vision that it resembles nothing else I've heard, including most of Wainwright's previous work.
On previous albums, Wainwright's melodies were occasionally thwarted by his ambition and a tendency to overwhelm the listener. His debut album, as well as "Want One" and "Want Two," struck me as stunning statements of overachievement. As luminous as they were, I ultimately felt lost in his musical vision, as if there were too many disparate elements fighting for my attention. "Release the Stars" can be just as demanding, but it is superior because it is wholly cohesive in its vision and message. Recorded during a hiatus away from America, Wainwright takes the time to ruminate on a multitude of relationships, and the results are often compelling, and occasionally stunning. "Rules and Regulations" contains the observation "I will never be as cute as you...These are just the rules and regulations, and I, like everyone, must follow them." In Slideshow," he debates whether it was worth the expense to fly his lover to be with him in Berlin. It's a simple thought, perhaps even base, but his delivery is wry and humorous, singing "I better be prominently featured in your next slide show, because I paid a lot of money to get you over here, you know." The dramatically intense arrangement is further heightened by the stunning accompaniment of Richard Thompson's gorgeously understated guitar solo. Without doubt, this is music made in the shadow of Richard Wagner.
I don't know if it's my imagination, but I also sense a slight difference in Wainwright's vocal delivery on "Release the Stars." In the past, I felt slightly put off by his oddly slurry enunciation - no, I don't mean `lith-py' - I'm referring to his tendency to somehow drench his words in ennui, even while soaring through a melody. Here, he sounds as if he cares much more about his subject, and the passion is visceral. "Between My Legs" is a quite funny and upbeat rumination on being sexually `absent'. "Going to a Town" is the album's emotional centerpiece, eloquently stating his purpose for leaving America behind, but the album's subtle climax comes during "Sans Souci," wherein Wainwright seems genuinely amused, if not pleased, with his predicament of being alone in Berlin. Throughout, "Release the Stars" is delivered in a voice that could only belong to one man, and this time around, I find it very easy to like Rufus Wainwright, just as he is. A Tom Ryan

Is it too fanciful to call this pop opera? Here we have tragic themes of self-loathing and unrequited love, delivered in a rounded tenor frequently dripping with life's sorrows, set amid some of the most ambitious orchestral arrangements since George Martin got busy with the Beatles Love
Up to now, there just hasn't been enough French horn in pop, and Rufus is the chap to put that right.
Of course, you cannot do stuff this big without help.
Executive producer is Neil Tennant - a man well used to crafting camp, glorious pop - and there is a small army of arrangers, as well as guests such as Richard Thompson on guitar and Rufus's mother and sister Kate McGarrigle and Martha Wainwright.
What this congregation of talents produces is something which refines yet further the formula of his Want One and Want Two (CD/DVD combo) albums.
Here we have a new millennial gay Edith Piaf baring his soul with rare elegance.
Standout tracks include "Tulsa", the Oklahoma city hymned with oh-so-European piano and strings, "Release The Stars", a peculiar big band affair concerned not with galactic goings-on but the contractual arrangements of Hollywood actors, and "Do I Disappoint You", a magnificent brassy overture which elevates self-doubt almost into something noble and celebratory.
But two songs make this a mini-masterpiece. "Going To A Town" is a wistful condemnation of his home country, distilled into the ennui-laden line "I'm so tired of America".
But there is a whole opera contained in "Between My Legs", which begins as a strange bubblegum rock song, mutates into something Phil Spector-ish, then features a dramatic spoken-word tract by Sian Phillips before a finale right out of Phantom of The Opera.

I was thrilled to be among the first to hear the album live, in SF, in its entirety, well before its release.

Some of the songs were preceded by a short story or context.

"Nobody's off the Hook" is about Teddy Thompson, whom Rufus often performs with.
"Rules and Regulations" is written from the perspective of an obese man watching the Olympics. To quote an understatement from Rufus: "He, umm, thinks a lot."
"Tulsa" is sung to Brandon Flowers of the Killers. (In concert, he performed this one--including all the string arrangements you hear on the record--on the piano. As you can imagine, it's *incredibly* difficult to play, and for him to sing over the rather obscured accompaniment attests to Rufus's impossibly accurate pitch sense and musicality.)

That said: the recording is phenomenal. It's produced perfectly, which is to say it's not overproduced. Rufus is melodically and lyrically at his best. Though certainly some of the melodies are immediately memorable, none are by any means conventional. As poignant as he can be, he's also cheeky. "Between My Legs," for example, offers a fleeting, campy tribute the "The Phantom of the Opera," which, like Rufus's corpus, is instantly recognizable but only to a select and lucky few. "Do I Disappoint you" layers his voice in a harmonic wall. The effect is frightening: it's as if he musters up the strength to wail back at the force that condemns him, and the force that he's afraid of disappointing.

When "Slideshow" begins with the ironic, sad line "Do I love you because you treat me so indifferently? Or is it the medication? Or is it me?"--we're moved from sympathy, to humor, to silence. (Of course, Rufus's aching, haunting voice produces this tension by itself--he could sing the theme song from "The Facts of Life and have me in hysterical tears.) Far from being solipsistic, which he's sometimes criticized for, Rufus here offers expressions of intimate socialities that many of us--a select and lucky few--will "get," if only in private.

this is another amazing album from rufus. i'd probably give this album 4.5 stars, but i'll just round up. it loses a bit just because i feel it isnt as good as want one, and want one is an obvious 5 star album. i guess the easiest to do is do a song by song rating
Do I DIssapoint You: 9.8 - one of my favorite on the album, i love the arrangements and the climax is up lifting and amazing.

Going To A Town: 9.4- one of the easiest to digest, and a great song. people seem to be misunderstanding it as an anti-america song. which it is not. it's more like rufus feels betrayed by a love of his. great lyrics. besides the main melody, the lyrics is what makes me really like this one

Tiergarten: 7.7- one of the better openings on the album, immediately catchy, but the rest of the song isnt as good for me. kinda meandering. has a few moments where it sounds like brian wilson

Nobody's Off the Hook: 8.4: a good song. you might pass over it as first, but i really like it, it's quiet but it seems to go somewhere which a lot of his slower songs don't

Between My Legs: 9.8- i love this song. it's everything i love about rufus. very climatic and also catchy.

Rules and Regulations: 7.8- this is like the "11:11" of the album. a good pop song, but not as good.

Not Ready to Love: 7.6- this one is a grower i think. i like it the more i listen.

Slideshow: 9.2:- another great song. i like the pace, i loove the chorus, and the guitar solo stuff is really good too.

Tulsa: 8- haha, i enjoy this song a lot. it's about brandon flowers i'm sure you guys know

Leaving For Paris No.2: 6.9- probably my least favorite so far. it doesn't go anywhere. meanders foreever

Sanssouci- 8.6: great song. poppy. very fun, it's not very deep, so i might get tired of it. we'll see

Release the Stars: 9.4- great way to end the album. i love the baroque/jazz swing to it

Rufus Wainwright is nearly in a class by himself. Other than David Usher who has flashes of the same brilliance as a lyricist but not quite the range in melody, Rufus is unique. He blends elements of the past from Tin Pan Alley to Broadway and seamlessly molds them to modern rock, folk, & pop with orchestral flourishes. There are so many different kinds of gems here. The obvious effort for Rufus is to focus his multifaceted talent so it connects with listeners. The orchestral flourishes of "Tulsa" rival some of Jimmy Webb's classic experiments while his lyrics fly across the map, "I fear that savior I have mentioned may be you." The title track has a caustic bite to the lyric as Wainwright sweetens it with a melodic arrangement that sounds like a pop rock show tune, "And believe you me, you are no match for a public that has seen the whites of your eyes; Didn't you know that old Hollywood is over?" The catchiest track is "Between My Legs" with its incessant beat and Rufus' voice bouncing between anger, love and desire, "Will I walk away from love knowing nothing, wearing my heart between my legs?" There are no weak tracks on this set, but it is a quite varied set. From the political disenchantment of "Going to a Town," the whimsical reminiscence of "Nobody's Off the Hook," and the magical "Sanssouci" each track is a new revelation. Rufus Wainwright has hit his stride and is producing work that is not to be missed. This is certainly a CD that will be on many "best of 2007" lists at the end of the year. Bravo!

From his first disc to this one nobody out there sings about longing like Wainwright has managed to do over the span of his short but spectacular career. It's an utter shame that is his voice and sheer brilliance for sheer vocal ability isn't hearlded more in the mainstream. The man oozes technique and passion. And with Release the Stars he gives off that same mysterious but relateable chamber pop that has always worked.

Almost every song here works but of course there are his stand outs: "Not Ready to Love" is all heartache and pain until it swirls out of control into a heartbreaking mantra. "Release the Stars" sounds as if Judy Garland would have knocked it off right after she sung "The Man that Got Away." And "Leaving for Paris no. 2" is haunting with its rambling piano and Wainwright's whispering vocal.

I have always loved his decadence and flair for wearing his emotions on his sleeve. His vocals have caught up to his brilliant lyrics, and I was lucky enough to catch his reimagining of Judy Garland's concert now if only he would have treated his fans to the ultimate Spring with a one two punch of two classic albums.

Rufus Wainwright is an original at a time where originality has almost no currency in the music business. Whether or not his prodigious talent ever translates into major commercial success remains to be seen, but it's good to see with this, his fifth album, that he appears undaunted. Release the Stars continues to showcase his musicianship - each listening reveals more and more layers in Do I Disappoint You and Tulsa, while Leaving For Paris shows what he can do with a great ballad and a piano and Sansoucci is an elegant pop piece. He is a far better lyricist now than on either of his first two albums. Going to a Town is a rare thing - a 'protest' song about modern America that conveys disappointment and concern about what America's become/becoming rather than just ranting about Bush.

On top of all of this, the singing is great. It's not a pretty voice, but he knows exactly what to do with it - beautiful pitch, power when it's right for the song and never when it's not. He becomes a better storyteller with each outing.

As I look at the unexplained lederhosen he wears in the booklet photos, I'm never quite sure how to describe Rufus Wainwright's singularly idiosyncratic musical style, as it seems to change with his shifting moods. After all, this is a performer who has the audacity to replicate Judy Garland's legendary 1961 Carnegie Hall concert note for note in Carnegie Hall. This time around, the singer-songwriter finds a broad canvas to show off his ornate Baroque sensibilities with lush orchestrations and sophisticated melodies, even though he sometimes gets carried away by the fulsome aural quality like in the Teutonic melodrama of "Tulsa", which seems inspired by the excessive theatricality of Kurt Weill. He starts out strong with the sonic opener, "Do I Disappoint You", which shows Wainwright's gift for propulsive melody, and the piano-led ballad, "Going to a Town", a new-fangled protest song with a decided Harry Nilsson-like vibe over a most morose chorus ("I am so tired of America").

Wainwright is most successful when he layers the instruments into virtual mini-symphonies, as he does with the strings on the romantic "Nobody's Off the Hook" and the full horn section on the swinging 1960's-styled "Rules and Regulations". At other times, however, Wainwright seems stuck in a melancholic quagmire, for example, the spacey, faraway feeling of "Not Ready to Love" and the equally lugubrious "Slideshow", an ode to paranoia that builds into a series of Beatlesque crescendos. The relaxing arrangement of "Sanssouci" travels along on an infectious beat and Brad Albetta's dexterous flute, while the minimalist "Leaving for Paris No. 2" evokes a Gallic-style sense of melody.

My favorite tracks are "Between My Legs", which actually catches fire with its percussive beat; the loping "Tiergarten" accompanied by the legendary Richard Thompson on the guitar; and the title tune, a sweeping epic which closes the album by melding various music genres into a fitting crescendo. Yet, for all his admirable efforts here, Wainwright fails to bring a unifying vision to his recording whether through theme or style, and the disc ultimately feels like an alternately impressive and befuddled hodgepodge of over-the-top highs and stultifying lows. This self-produced effort showcases an often brilliant musician who sometimes caters too much to his own indulgences.

As a fan of Rufus Wainwright since the release of Poses, Rufus pleasantly continues to impress and entertain me over and over again with each new release.

No one in pop music today writes, arranges and sings music as Rufus does. His lyrics are witty and moving. How many times do you hear a song which makes you smile every time you hear it? How many times do you hear a song where you keep discovering hidden layers of thought and musical composition? His music is melodic, lush, and often operatic.

The complex structure of his musical composition draws one into his music on both an emotional and intellectual level. Sure, at times he can go over the top with a little bit of overproduction and self-indulgence, but it is over production and self-indulgence with a little wink of self-acknowledgement to the listener. Unlike so much of the interchangeable pablum of popular music we get today, this is one artist's uniquely personal artistic statement set to music.

I am surprised by the reviews which criticize this cd as more over the top than previous cd's by Rufus. To me, this album is more accessible and more toned down than that of Want Two (although I greatly enjoy Want Two.)

This cd is as good as any Rufus has released (With Poses perhaps being my favorite.) If you are a Rufus fan, buy this right away. If you are new to Rufus, my advice would be to start by purchasing Poses.

Release the Stars is a stunning album!!! At first listen the music floods your emotions, completely taking you over and giving you an emotional experience through each song. It's only after a couple of listens that one can start to appreciate the soaring arrangements (all done by Rufus) the superb vocals (which believe it or not have improved), and the wonderfully crafted lyrics that range from heart-wrenching to tounge-in-cheek. I believe he is the most talented and without a doubt most ambitious singer/songwriter today. Every one of his albums can stand on their own as amazing feats, and with his 5th album, he's managed to do it again. Whether you are a fan of great songwriting, singing, rock, pop, opera, classical, or whatever, listen to this album- you won't regret it.