Rufus Wainwright

[Gandizzl]

Most is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufus_Wainwright

Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter. Since 1998, he has recorded five albums + a lot of ep's and tracks that are included on compilations and film soundtracks.
He is the son of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, brother of Martha Wainwright, and the half-brother of Lucy Wainwright Roche.

He has a baritone singing voice, he plays both piano and the guitar, often switching between the two instruments when performing live.
While some of his songs feature just Wainwright with his piano, his later work is often accompanied by rock instrumentation or a symphony orchestra, displaying complex layering and harmonies with an operatic feel.
Wainwright is an avid opera fan, and the influences on his music are evident, as well as his love of Franz Schubert's Lieder.
Some of Wainwright's songs have been described as "Popera" (Pop Opera) or "Baroque Pop".

Wainwright's songs contains several recurring themes: opera, literature, pop culture, and, more recently, homosexuality and love provide the underlying theme for many of his songs, albeit in various and dissimilar forms.

As a teenager he came out as a homosexual.
He has said in a interview that his parents couldn't handle him being gay.
At the age of 14 he was raped by a man in London's Hyde Park.

He rose to fame through weekly shows at Cafe Sarajevo, Wainwright became a fixture on the Montreal club circuit and eventually cut a series of demo tapes produced by Pierre Marchand.
Rufus moved to New York City in the spring of 1996 and began performing regularly at Club Fez, building a loyal local audience.
He relocated to Los Angeles that fall, and began recording his first studio album, 1998's Rufus Wainwright.

By summer 1999 he had taken some time off to live and put music on the back burner.
He lived in the Chelsea Hotel in NYC for six months, during which he wrote most of his second album.
On June 5, 2001, Poses, Wainwright's second album, was released to critical acclaim, but limited record sales.

Wainwright became addicted to crystal meth in the early 2000s and temporarily lost his vision due to overuse. His addiction reached its peak in 2002, during what he described as "the most surreal week of his life."
During that week, he played a drug addict in a cameo role in "Absolutely Fabulous"; spent several nights partying with the president's daughter, Barbara Bush; enjoyed a "debauched evening" with his mother and Marianne Faithfull; sang with Antony of Antony and the Johnsons for Zaldy's spring 2003 collection; and, throughout, experienced recurring hallucinations of his father.
He decided shortly after that he "was either going to rehab or I was going to live with my father. I knew I needed an ******* to yell at me, and I felt he fitted the bill".

In 2003/2004 the Want albums came out.
They are quite different in style, Want Two being very dark and sad.

Rufus' fifth studio album Release the Stars was released by Geffen on May 15, 2007.

At the moment he's touring with his latest album tour, but when he's done with that, Wainwright plans to write his first opera, Prima Donna which he says will be about "a day in the life of an opera singer."

Releases:
Rufus Wainwright - 1998
Poses - 2001
Want One - 2003
Want Two - 2004
Release The Stars - 2007

Myself I like Want Two the most.
I like dark/sad/gloomy feeling this album has and it includes some of the finest symphonic elements he's ever had on an album

Poses come second in line, being one more of the more melodic albums he has.
And this album was done during his crystal meth addiction and it's noticeable that it has had a lot to say.

My favorite songs are:
This Love Affair
Grey Gardens
Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk
Old *****'s Diet
Chelsea Hotel No. 2
Foolish Love
Want
Tulsa
Gay Messiah
The Art Teacher

So...
Who else here loves this man and his creations?

[Jose]

i just googled him he is good one heared one track