Thursday 5 May 2011

Patrick Wolf

Does anyone else loves Patrick Wolf?


I discover him actually by chance on youtube a few weeks ago, and the more I listen to his music the more fascinated I am, he mixes lots of sounds and genres I love, and the style varies a lot even in a single album, which is wicked, since usually the singers-composers tend to find their style and not move much from there, unlike the singers that sing songs from others that have like more chance to “choose” different styles.   It’s like listening to Bjork mixed with Kate Bush, Mika and Depeche Mode, but with a fabulous and fresh style.

As a musician, he tries to find new sounds, and to experiment, he plays the piano, harp, accordion, harpsichord, organ, theremin, ukulele, viola and violin, which is very impressive in itself, but beyond being multi-instrument player, I think he’s not afraid of trying new things, from commercial pop to dark melancholic folk and electronic sounds, also and a thing that I always celebrate in real artists, is that he really gives part of himself to his music, for that I mean that he manage to puts his own feelings and state of mind (and soul) in the tracks and transmit it in a brilliant way to the audience.  One may like or dislike some artists, but true art is about transmit feelings, if you manage to do that, then yes, you are entitled the name artists.

I have not listen to all his albums, I first followed what the internet give us about him, which it was a very nice surprise. Then, I decided to buy one of his albums, The Bachelor, which is surprisingly only £2.50 on amazon,
 then I learned that this album was founded by his fans, after leaving universal music and not wanting to deal with any major record label, he went out to his fans to ask for help, and give them the chance to buy stocks of the album, managing to collect £100,000 to record the 14 track album (explaining why is so cheap, since there’s no middle man and big company asking money for it).  This album, as he has described, is very dark due to him being in a very dark place, giving up on the idea of love and long term relationships.

There’s anger, but also a sense of hope, the revolution that leads to resolution, and great rock style sounds over the song “Hard Times”



The folk orientated and melancholic sounds of Damaris





The folk blues with a great stamp of despair in the Bachelor




Or the electronic sounds of Vulture





I have also listen to some tracks from the previous album, The magical position, which is a more commercial pop one, from a time when love was in the life of Wolf.

The baroque pop of the magical position, with a very nice video full of bright and happy colours, in a song that is also full of happy feelings, was the first to capture me.




And finally on a totally 80s style pop the new single of his upcoming album Lupercalia, The city.




I’m also fascinated with Patrick Wolf the character, first his extravagant androgynous looks, and his open sexuality that doesn’t constrict himself to a label. He said in an interview  "In the same way I don’t know if my sixth album is going to be a death-metal record or children's pop, I don’t know whether I’m destined to live my life with a horse, a woman or a man. It makes life easier." Which is a brilliant form to put it. And in other said that "My sexuality is kind of liberal. I fall in love with men and women. I guess you would call me bisexual. I like to have sex and fall in love—I don't like giving terminology for my sexuality.” 
It was, without a doubt one of the better discoveries I have made in lately, and I’m totally fascinated by this young artist.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very well written, Al, and you have encouraged me to check this guy out. He kind of reminds me of me! I'll get that fan-funded album, since it's so cheap and there is no record label.

Dean

Ál said...

Nice you like the blog post, and good that you check him out... I hope you like the bachelor, is a good album I reckon.

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