From the Stylus review of Lycanthropy:
6-foot-lots and too scrawny skinny thin tall boney blonde to hug; Patrick Wolf. A glass of red wine and poison. A shock of blonde hair. A Family Romance. A destitute teenager. A shiver at the site of the full moon. Homeless, hungry, half-insane. Patrick Wolf. Was once a boy. Cut off his penis and grew a hairy scar of stubborn fire. You gave him pretty clothes and he gave you what was between his legs. His blood beats black tonight. Run run run, as fast as you can, but you can’t run run from the Childcatcher’s hand. Wrote your name in his shit across the town.
So Patrick is the best new thing to come out of music in recent memory, at least since the turn of the millennium. He's put out 2 excellent albums and he's set to release his 3rd early this year.
His first album, Lycanthropy, has a couple of missteps, but it's pretty easy to overlook them considering he was a teenager when most of the album was recorded, and for the most part it was entirely recorded by himself. The album, even the somewhat overwrought bits, are cracklike to listen to, and Patrick gives up the vibe of some tarted up on drugs Victorian urchin with access to hot as balls sequencing equipment.
His second album, Wind in the Wires, was released just over a year later. Although it was recorded in a fraction of the time it took to record Lycanthropy (which was between like 2-4 years depending on what you hear), it was better in almost ever way. Gone were the clumsy lines and the complete reliance on using electronics. Wind in the Wires, while still presenting tons of electronic and sequencer work, was more of an electro-folk record with a couple of bangers mixed in. The single released before the album released, The Libertine (see above), fished the fans of the original back in and attracted a newer, less drawn to flash audience.
It is now 2 years later, and Patrick's 3rd album, The Magic Position is an elephant sitting in the room. Everyone wants to be nice about it since his first 2 albums were excellent, and expectations were raised even higher when his sophomore album proved to be universally more acclaimed than the original. Well, aside from providing the MOST AWESOME album cover ever,
spoiler (click to show/hide)
the album is a total rotter. The first single released a month or so back, Accident and Emergency, fired a warning shot in the air, but I refused to acknowledge it. I figured he was attempting to produce a more mass market track so he can rake in a new audience, but sadly the clubby shallowness is fairly representative of the album. The album starts off with a very Wind in the Wires-ish overture, and when I first heard that opening track, I figured everything would be okay. Then I heard the title track.
. It is difficult to remain upset with Mr. Wolf because his first 2 albums are that fantastic. But he appears to have grown from that faux-Victorian tart into some sort of Kylie mutant. GET YOURSELF IN ORDER, PATRICK! I want more songs about child molestation and libertines and holding on to bird's tails and riding giraffes!
The album is still of a certain quality. I don't think critics will be
that harsh on it because it is well-crafted, but I don't think there is any other acceptable response after Wind other than disappointment. So I see critics ranking it roughly the same as Lycanthropy, but there will be a couple that are so bummed that it scores even less.
