Reviews: Rufus Wainwright, Janet Jackson, The Magnetic Fields
Monday, March 31st, 2008
Rufus Wainwright
Rufus Does Judy At Carnegie Hall
Geffen
Rufus has never been one to shy away from the fact that he’s gay, but to go to such lengths to prove it is either the sign of strength or a drama queen. His performance to pay homage to Judy Garland was so popular that several shows were added not only at Carnegie Hall but in London, Paris and Los Angeles, but were they worth preserving a singer who has the audacity to recreate one of the most loved live recordings of all time?
Yes. It’s great fun even if Rufus’ distinct voice doesn’t always live up to the material. The moments between songs are fun, too, because he talks to the audience at the same moments Judy does during her performance back in 1961, not to mention hearing Rufus’ perfectionist nature being presented here when he has the orchestra start over having missed a cue or when the tempo not being to his liking.
Not being a Judy Garland fan myself, I was surprised to discover how many of these songs I actually knew or had heard at some point. The highlight here is surprisingly a song that Rufus lets his sister — the incredibly talented Martha Wainwright — take over completely. Her rendition of “Stormy Weather” is lush and gritty at the same time and actually grounds the recording finally from its lofty goals. This album is probably only for Rufus fans and for curious Judy fans, but there is no denying the love that Rufus puts into this show. He even included a picture from Judy’s performance which shows his grandparents sitting in box seats enjoying the show. It seems that some things do skip a generation.
“Stormy Weather” - Martha Wainwright @ The London Palladium
Janet Jackson
Discipline
Island
In what fans are hoping will be the end of Janet’s Trilogy Of The Uninspired, Discipline is as bland and lackluster as Damita Jo and 20 Y.O. Keeping the vixen burning is the only thing that Ms. Jackson seems to want to do. She’s a 41-year-old kitten who wants to be tamed, stroked and told what to do. In fact, if you look at the credits for this album, she really is letting everyone else do the work. No longer is she credited for the majority of songs which means either she was trying to do something different or her new record label stepped in trying to make sure they had a hit on their hands. The only sign of hope for fans is the electro-robotic “Rock With U” which sounds like a fun, new direction for Janet, but unfortunately it’s not explored elsewhere.
“Rock With U”
The Magnetic Fields
Distortion
Nonesuch
For a man known throughout the music community as one whose lyrics are as witty as his melodies are strong, it’s quite daring to start off the new album by his biggest project with an instrumental that only has an occasionally screamed “Three way!”. Distortion has a lot of its namesake, but the problem here is that some of these don’t need the effect or don’t lend themselves to the noise simply to live up to the title.
“Old Fools” is a beautiful ballad about growing old in love which lies in a bed of distorted guitars that need not be there. The same is true for the next two songs on the album: “Xavier Says” and “Mr. Mistletoe”. Thankfully, the album kicks back into the higher-quality song writing you’d expect from Stephin Merritt. “Drive On, Driver” is melancholy, but the distorted guitars add to the gloom of the song which leads into the hilarious “Too Drunk To Dream” where the feedback actually adds to the weight of the song leaving the listening feeling as drunk as the protagonist.
Other highlights include “The Nun’s Litany”, “Zombie Boy” and the album’s best song “California Girls” made even more entertaining by the fact that Stephin has Shirley Simms sing, “Then will they taste my wrath/They will hear me say/As the pavement whirls/’I hate California girls’”. In fact, Shirley’s occasional vocals adds far more depth to Distortion than if Stephin had sung all the tracks. She really adds to “Drive On, Driver” and “Courtesans” all-in-all making for another satisfying album by the quirky Magnetic Fields.
“California Girls”
Listening to: “Oxford Comma” by Vampire Weekend
For some reason completely unbeknownst to me, I found an organization that I really want to promote: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I just feel this uncontrollable urge deep where my appendix used to be that I should tell you a bit about the society in a two-sentence mission statement lifting directly from their website.
I just can’t leave this mix alone. It’s my favorite of the concept mixes, so seem to always find things I don’t like about it to fix. This time it’s because I rediscovered a favorite album of mine — Pulsars’ one and only full-length collection of music. On the same label as Garbage, Pulsars were supposed to be this band that brought back the electronic fun of the 80’s back to the airwaves, but the label went under and the new owners decided not to pick them up. All this is standard fare in the music industry, of course, but it’s also sad. The debut album was really good.
