• Tweet
• Sharebar

• Tweet

This article was written on a train ride from Toronto to Ottawa.. a month ago

Ottawa – I am currently on the train to Ottawa, I’ve just finished season one of True Blood and there isn’t enough time to watch a movie. I am kind of luke warm on watching the rest of Eastbound and Down, so I am going to review the Patrick Wolf CD, TRACK BY TRACK.

1. Kriespiel – An instrumental to begin the album, it is filled with sirens, perhaps a warning for things to come. The sirens sounds like it’s from a space station or something.
2. Hard Times – The sirens from the first track seamlessly transforms into a string filled tune. I love strings in songs. I think this one has violin and cello. I am wondering if how this will translate in the live show. “Revolution!” shouts Patrick Wolf. The epic feel of the album begins with this track, as a backing choir makes its presence felt…. “Revoluuuuuuuuution”, I don’t know what he wants to revolt against, but it is clear he wants to sound good doing it.
3. Oblivion – Is that Tilda Swinton on the vocals? I think she has guest vocals in some of the songs. The drum beat has a rolling kind of 60s stomping vibe to it. Probably not single material.
4. The Bachelor – title track of the album. I’ve heard this song before, it’s one of the tunes on this album that is on heavy rotation. It’s a duet between Patrick Wolf and some guy who has a really raspy voice, if I had to visualize it, it would be some black guy from the south who has lived through some dark times and likes blues music or something. This song sounds like something that Jack White would write, if he wasn’t busy collaborating with everyone not named ‘Meg White’. I guess Patrick Wolf isn’t getting married. He keeps on mentioning silver ring, which is right in tune with my watching of True Blood on this train ride.
5. Damaris – I have written an entire post about this song. It is awesome. Yes it’s epic, but it doesn’t try to hide that at all. Sure maybe it’s Lawrence of Arabia-seque. But that movie is a classic! Mark says this song sounds like a Suede tune (circa Bernard Butler years). I would agree, maybe that’s why I love it so much. Not many bands make epic music anymore, and that’s a shame. For all the electropop indie fluff I listen to, nothing knocks me on my ass faster then a nice complex song. This should be a single, but I don’t think its entirely radio friendly enough
6. Thickets – I think having a laptop is a necessity for train traveling. You could load it up with so many forms of entertainment (tv, music, movies) and when you are really bored, you can just write stuff, or even draw on paint or something. I guess you can also have games. I should have put Syndicate or Civilization on here. Argh. This song has more Tilda. “You’ll be home soon enough” she says. It is true, I think we are only 20 minutes away from Ottawa, but it is not MY HOME. Maybe she is predicting the future though, maybe I get a sweet job in Ottawa and it will be my home. This song has a kind of a lush running through a forest wearing only clothes made from the earth feel. The piano has a strong presence in this tune, but its very uplifting kind of song.
7. Count of Casualty – Looks like Patrick brought out the computers for this one, as the intro is a early 90s modem layered over a drum beat. More backing choir “ooohhho oooooh”. You can tell how serious an artist takes an album by the amount of backing choir use in an album. This is 3 out of 6 songs now, so this album is definitely an important one. Lots of DJ generated beats in this song. Kinda like DnTel kind of beats.

I have arrived in Ottawa, so part 2 arrives in a few days.

Errr, Part 2 never came, since I got a ride back from Ottawa instead of a train. Regardless, this is a very very good album. Don’t believe me? check out some of the reviews on it here

Here are the tour dates for his shows:
June 17 Canada Toronto, ON Mod Club
June 19 USA Buffalo, NY Tralf Music Hall
June 20 USA Philadelphia, PA North Star Bar
June 21 USA Boston, MA The Middle East
June 23 USA New York, NY Highline Ballroom
June 24 USA Washington DC, DC Rock and Roll Hotel
June 26 USA Carrboro, NC Cats Cradle
June 27 USA Atlanta, GA The Loft
June 30 USA Dallas, TX Granada Theatre
July 1 USA Austin, TX Antones Nightclub

Cheers

 

 Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor: Play Now