Best Songwriters – #6 – Rufus Wainwright

I went back and forth several times between including Rufus Wainwright in my top five songwriters and leaving him at #6. Ultimately I went with this placement for reasons I’ll get into next week, but it was a hard decision. Part of me agrees with Elton John’s assessment of Wainwright as “the greatest songwriter on the planet.”

Hyperbole aside, it’s hard to deny the writing chops of a man whose pop music is influenced by Chopin and Puccini as well as The Beatles and his folk singing father, Loudon Wainwright III. Rufus Wainwright brings a theatrical sensibility to his music that simply isn’t approached by anybody else working today. He is a fascinating blend of classic and modern styles and attitudes.

When I first heard ‘Foolish Love,’ the first song on Wainwright’s debut album, I knew instantly that I’d discovered a new favorite artist. That song starts with a slow introductory verse — you know, the kind you find on old Sinatra songs — before segueing into a jazzy stroll down Park Avenue. Strings swell, drums are brushed, horns rise in the mix to complement Wainwright’s playful piano solo. The whole thing reaches a crescendo before he returns to those opening lines and slowly, sweetly leaves the way he came in.

That one song contains an album’s worth of ingenuity, flair and balls. And it’s the first track he committed to record.

Wainwright aims for the fences every time, and follows his muse down whatever dark alleys he’s led to. He has performed a song-for-song recreation of Judy Garland’s famous Carnegie Hall concert (yes, he’s that gay), composed an opera and released an album of piano-and-vocals tracks that includes two Shakespeare sonnets set to his own melodies. I applaud all of those ventures even when they don’t particularly appeal to me.

My Wainwright sweet spot is the art pop rock he’s recorded on his first five albums (which preceded the experimental work referenced above). When he transforms that fondness for opera into a track like ‘Damned Ladies’ off of his debut album, a song about the unfortunate women who populate his favorite operas, the result is magical.

‘Little Sister,’ from his fourth album, Want Two, similarly mines his love of classical music and sets his tale of sibling rivalry (partly inspired by Mozart’s family) into a nifty little bit of chamber pop. The song is also addressed to his own sister, Martha, who he expects to have a rockier climb up the music industry ladder due to her gender.

I can’t write a Rufus Wainwright post without referencing his voice, which always comes up as the most significant barrier to others enjoying him as much as I do. I happen to like his voice, though I can see why some find it annoying. I’ve long been a fan of non-traditional voices. But vocals aside, I don’t think anybody can argue that the man doesn’t know how to write a song.