It’s been a while since the race Rufus Wainwright he changed his cycle, and between operas, classical approaches, and his latest return to Judy Garland, it turns out this Montreal-raised New York musician has only released two pop albums in a decade (Out of the game, 2012). and Repeal Compliance, 2020). It is in this position that his new work, “Folcocracy”, is plot-biased, a song with a popular cut and an acoustic undertone that has littered his work since its inception, should be placed.
Folk is in the genetic code of the artist, the son of two troubadours, Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. There is something of a refuge here in safe (and unsigned) material, giving the impression that songwriter Wainwright is no longer in the intimidating shape he was 20 years ago. Was the jaded and besotted Rufus a cooler creator? This is probably the case, although his mature version of the happy father of the family (who will turn 50) has not lost the instinct to put together exquisite albums, full of charming details and precise performance, starting with his own singing I, every day a little more refined.
Folkocracy proclaims popular democracy as its name, in which Wainwright shines, creating a collection of songs that he admires, sharing the attention with many guests. Working with a certain community spirit and with a hidden political background: in addition to beautiful voices and a range of carefully crafted instruments, this is also an album of protest songs.
The fact that various black voices run through here (from John Legend to Chakha Khan, this one in the traditional Southern production Cotton-Eyed Joe) already sends a message, as does the choice of Down in the Willow Garden as the first single. , nothing more and nothing less than an Appalachian murder ballad. And what about the Hawaiian song Kaulana na pua, performed in this language, lamenting the loss of sovereignty of the islands and a virtual anti-American anthem. Like, in its own way, Going to a town, the only cover version of the album released in collaboration with Anohni (ex-Antony).
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substantial and pleasant
A recording of acoustic guitars, mandolins and violins, but not only that, it combines bluegrass forays (Harvest, Neil Young) with another sound: sunny, very folk-pop echo Twelve-thhirty (Young girls come to the Canyon), The Mamas and the Papas (in the choirs of Suzanne Hoffs, Sheryl Crow and Chris Stills, son of Stephen Stills), the theatrical round of Black Gold by the hand of his beloved mentor Van Dyke Parkes, and tandem with David Byrne in dreamy High on a rocky ledge (from poet, musician and inventor of Moondog). The peaks of the album are in the form of a mosaic with pronounced reliefs, meaningful and pleasant, although they are not ranked among the author’s major works.