Rufus Wainwright

The second release from his "Want" recording sessions, Want Two features Wainwright's melting pot of classical, Tin Pan Alley, waltzes and experimental pop influences. A truly ambitious record by an original artist.

Rufus Wainwright's Want Two is by far the composer's least commercial album. Filled with
operatic vocals, symphonic arrangements, iconoclastic religiosity and Latin (the dead
language, not Ricky Martin's bloodline), Want Two is unlikely to steal away any Jessica
Simpson fans. Instead, Wainwright's fanciful songs about love and faith place him in the
rarefied company of Bjork and Brian Wilson, whose audacious Medoella and SMi... More >

Want One moved well-wishers to decry the evil corporation that forbade its prestige artiste to pile all the post-rehab "songs" he recorded with Björk hand Marius deVries onto one glorious double CD. But had any of them actually heard the lachrymosities he saved for part two? Get Jon Brion in here quick, Van Dyke Parks even, "The Art Teacher" is worth saving. His mom will still love him, that's something--thank God for her cameo. For less sanguine admirers, however, this is too classical, too romantic, and too I-yam-what-I-yam all at once. (Grade - B-)