Word: wainwrightã
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...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 the glitzy side streets of Chelsea and launched him into the vague and airy realm of love, loss, and remorse. His musical range has been correspondingly streamlined from the likes of synthesizers, horns, strings, and drums...
...Days Are Nights” is an unalterable step towards a kind of maturity, it is 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...
...Dream,” the standout track on “All Days Are Nights,” signifies what potential there is in Wainwright??s new style. Employing an uplifting chord progression in a refreshing major key, Wainwright warbles, “The dream has come and gone / The earth lumbers on / The dream is back in space / Back where it came from.” Striking a fantastic, wistful, and yet powerful tone, Wainwright here describes a kind of loss that avoids the lure of saccharine self-pity. His imagery, of an earth...
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...
...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 makes him great, and the years that have made him alternatively sad and sappy, it may be that he just sounds best when he is having...