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This indecisiveness, rather than the music itself, is what holds “Swim” back. The album seems to reside in an odd limbo, demonstrating superb dance tracks and Caribou’s continuing mastery of his familiar fields, but failing to commit to a cohesive vision of either. The album’s confusion might induce a little nostalgia for the sweeping sounds of “Andorra.” But more than anything, Caribou should be applauded for his courage in releasing a record that strays far from the formula of his previous releases...
...newest effort, “All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu.” These painfully ponderous reflections represent the culmination of a major shift for Wainwright. The troubadour has been slowly moving away from the disaffected, dissolute charm of his early efforts, most notably on 2001 breakout album “Poses,” and towards an artistic seriousness that has motivated him to write an opera and compose a score for the Philadelphia Ballet during the last five years. In Wainwright’s recording career, this development has uprooted his lyrical subject matter from...
...also a regrettable one. In growing more earnest, some of Wainwright’s compositions have reached a previously unexplored height of emotional and intellectual resonance, an important part of which is Wainwright’s commitment to the piano. More saliently, however, the overwhelming sentimentality of this latest album has blunted the artist’s edge and overshadowed his great musical talent...
However, nearly the entire rest of the album falls into two unfortunate categories: that of exasperating melancholy and sappy happiness. In “True Loves,” the chief example of the former group, the piano plays in a minor key at an unbearably slow pace. Wainwright’s voice drips with emotion as he intones, “It’s the true loves / That make me want to cry / It’s the true loves / That make me want to say goodbye.” It is entirely unclear what Wainwright is talking...
Wainwright remains an undeniably gifted and intelligent songwriter. “The Dream,” as well as a set of three songs in the middle of the album in which Wainwright sets three Shakespeare sonnets to piano accompaniment, reitreate the creative gifts that the artist has shown throughout his career. Given his past success and glimpses of his continuing talent, then, the main response to “All Days Are Nights” is one of disappointment. Most songs simply don’t live up to Wainwright’s billing. Besides the intellectual clout that...