Rufus Wainwright won't turn 40 until next summer, yet his new album Out Of The Game (out May 1) feels like something of a baroque pop September Of My Years—produced by retro-centric hit-maker Mark Ronson, the album finds Wainwright ("fresh", I suppose you could say, off the stark, funereal piano/vocal modus operandi of 2010's All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu) setting his sights not on the dance floors or the Top 40 charts, but on the settled-in comfort of a musical midlife. A stylish but never striking flourish of '70s AOR pop arrangements, golden age prog-rock synthesizers and blustery back alley acoustic guitar strums, Out Of The Game feels like the sort of album you'd write with a devoted partner and baby daughter at the forefront of your mind— an adoring ode to domesticity with the odd clubland memento tucked away just out of frame.
Watch Helena Bonham Carter Go All Sexy Librarian In Rufus Wainwright's "Out Of The Game" Music Video
On the leisurely title track, Rufus makes room for the kids coming up from behind, coyly remarking, "Say, come over here, let me smell you for one last time before you go out there and ruin all of the world once mine" over a carefree bed of chorus pedal guitars and gal group backup vocals. The muscular "Jericho" feels like something Elton John would've left off Rock of the Westies, while "Rashida" mashes up '50s dancehall piano with pummeling guitar/drum prog riffage. Ronson lends his keyboard collection to the lush, shimmering disco swell of "Barbara", a sensual rush of easy listening vibes and spacious, almost effervescent harmonies. "Bitter Tears", meanwhile, takes the skinny tie nostalgia a bit too far with its post-Falco synth-pop thump and propulsive Miami Vice style beat.
Old and new clash brilliantly on "Montauk", the album's charming and disarmingly emotional centerpiece—over a bombastic synthesizer swirl (think Muse's "Take A Bow" times 10), Rufus imagines his daughter growing gracefully into old age with her two kooky dads puttering around in the background. It's an emotional gulp of fresh air that feels a bit stymied by the forced new wave groove of "Perfect Man" and the watered down Tom Waits gloom of boozy strummer "Respectable Dive". Elsewhere, "Sometimes You Need" pairs a charismatically philandering set of lyrics ("Sometimes you need a stranger to talk to Sometimes you need to go to the observatory") with austere acoustic guitars and a mournful lap steel line drenched to the nines in thick reverb. The wistfully self-referential "Song Of You" (i.e. "So you want a song just for you? There are many lyrics to choose form, but there's only one of you") sets the stage for solemn closer "Candles", in which Rufus continues to mourn the death of his mother by wryly commenting, "I tried to do all that I can, but the churches have run out of candles" over a holistic mess of acoustic guitars and weeping/wailing chorale vocals.
Light on dramatic flair, Out Of The Game feels like Wainwright's prerequisite mid-career transitional effort—his best-when-soaring tenor and penchant for otherworldly melodies feel more than a little suffocated under Ronson's production, especially following the free-form, "anything goes" expressionism of his last record. Nevertheless, even in his metaphoric bathrobe and slippers, Rufus can't help but dazzle (cue the "Penny Lane" bombast of "Welcome To The Ball") and delight—it'll take more than one mediocre new album to dampen his effortlessly astounding musical prowess.
SumOlogy: Even Rufus Wainwright's musical midlife crisis is something to behold— a 21st century Poses with more synthesizers and a lot less starry-eyed ambition.
Grade: B+
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