Rufus Wainwright, All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu

Immediately following “Martha” is the bafflingly upbeat “Give Me What I Want,” which contains irritating, contrived rhymes such as, give me what I want and give it to me now/don’t be such a holy cow and later, greedy cow. Lyrics aside, it is a catchy song, with excellent piano, but it seems rather incongruous with the rest of the album. Additionally, although “True Loves” has a gorgeous opening phrase, and is pretty, it is slightly repetitive, without much complexity.

The next three songs are from an intriguing but otherwise unavailable project wherein Rufus set sonnets to music. In the original project, they were sung in German, but on the album, he sings them in English. As an English literature graduate, I thought the concept of Shakespeare set to Rufus’ music sounded like a match made in heaven. So I’m delighted to report that my favorite track on the album is “A Woman’s Face” (a.k.a. Sonnet 20). The melody is perfection, with simple piano chords, and Rufus’ tone is gentle and devotional.

When the third sonnet is over, it is time for “The Dream,” an immediately captivating song, which feels a little more upbeat and poppy than the majority of songs on the album. “What Would I Ever Do With A Rose?” follows this song thematically with the line, never does the dream come true without the nightmare. It also showcases the lower range of Rufus’ voice, which does not get used very often. My enjoyment of the next song, ‘”Les Feux D’Artifice T’Appellent,” is a no-brainer since I am powerless to resist a Wainwright or McGarrigle singing in French.

“Zebulon,” the album’s closer, is another autobiographical song, and is a meditated effort. It is undoubtedly painful to hear the lyric, my mother’s in the hospital knowing that he has since lost her. However, the song ends rather abruptly. I know that a lot of artists and bands like to finish the album this way, as perhaps they think that it will make the listener more likely to put the album on again right away, but it is not a device that I personally enjoy.

All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu is a serious album, for a tragic time in Rufus Wainwright’s life, and after attending a show on April 16 at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall, my husband and I learned just how seriously Rufus is taking it.

Before the concert began, we were instructed that we were not allowed to clap until after Rufus left the stage, as he wanted to perform the album as a song cycle. The lights dimmed and a solitary figure walked onto the stage, his gait reminiscent of a funeral march. Rufus was clad in a garment that was a cross between a dress and a coat, slightly open at the front, with a gigantic train trailing behind him. It probably took him about four minutes to walk across the stage. He is certainly entitled to perform how he wishes to perform.

Rufus and Martha are both very prone to forgetting their own lyrics, which they miraculously manage to make less irritating by inserting some witty or charming self-deprecating comment. Yet during the first set, Rufus hummed or simply stopped singing at moments when he had forgotten the lyrics. This was grating to me. It was an expensive ticket, and the audience were indulging him by not reacting to the performance, so it came across as somewhat arrogant of him not to acknowledge his mistakes.

However (and I am glad to end on a high note), the second set was Rufus at his fabulous best, singing many songs that we had never seen him perform live before. He bookended these performances with tributes to his mother, opening with “Beauty Mark,” an early song which he wrote about her, and closing with a song of hers and her sister’s, “The Walking Song.”

Having expressed my disappointment vehemently during the protracted interval, I was sufficiently humbled when he sang a lyric from his song “Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk,” so please be kind if I’m a mess. This reminded me not to be too critical of one of my favorite artists at such a hard time in his life.

All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu was released on April 20. Rufus Wainwright will be touring throughout the UK and Europe for the next few months. For tour dates, please visit his Official Site, where you can vote on what songs you’d like him to perform in the tour.

Watch Making Eyes, a short feature on David Gordon’s tour visuals. You can also check out a performance of “Zebulon.”

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