Rufus Wainwright has never been an artist who disregards the commercial and popular accessibility of his music.
I suppose that’s a funny statement to make about a guy who recently penned an opera in French, but it’s true.
Fault him for overestimating the public’s appetite for his brand of flamboyant pop cabaret but make no mistake… he writes hook-laden music for the masses and he’d be absolutely thrilled to land an album or a song high on the charts.
After 13 years of recording with The Wallflowers, Jakob Dylan released his first solo album, Seeing Things, in 2008. That album (which I reviewed at the time) was a lovely, low-key acoustic collection of personal and protest songs.
Two years later, Dylan’s follow-up solo effort, Women and Country, has hit shelves (and hard drives) and it makes Seeing Things sound like a Led Zeppelin album.
OK, I’m exaggerating. But Women and Country is a decidedly mellow, sometimes even sleepy album. That said, it is a thoroughly rewarding one that grows richer and more nuanced with every listen.
Second albums are tough.
The concept of the sophomore slump is particularly valid in the music world, where many a promising debut is followed by something head-scratching or, worse, boring.
Often the artist spent years building up to the first release, honing the perfect batch of songs into something meaningful and thought out. And once the debut is a hit, pressure comes from the label (not to mention fans) to put out something else right away. So the result is a hastily thrown together group of songs, often chronicling the experience of fame itself, something nobody really cares to hear about.
Meet Me In Montauk 