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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stepping out of the shadows., 24 April 2009
Patrick Wolf's fourth album is his first recorded with a budget, in proper studios, and with serious collaborations (The Magic Position's dalliance with Marianne Faithful notwithstanding in the facer of Eliza Carthy, Matthew Herbert, Tilda Swinton, and Alec Empire, who all appear here). It's also, (in)famously partly funded by donations from fans paid via the internet - £100,000 to mix the album and subsidise early tours.
The resulting record may well alienate fans of the low-fi, bedroom caterwauling that made up his debut, Lycanthropy, or the lonesome promontory folk of Wind In The Wires. It may even confuse fans of the pop-inclined Magic Position, his last album from 2007. But it shouldn't, because The Bachelor, a collection of songs charting the dark days and emotions that followed his brush with major record labels and existential panic, is a terrific record that sees Patrick step not only out of his bedroom but also out of the shadow of his key influences - namely Kate Bush and David Bowie.
Because have no doubts about it; this is a big, elaborate, ostentatious record that has more in common with The Hounds Of Love than with whoever's trendy with the gatekeepers of indie taste in 2009. Swinging from darkly tinged, sexually-charged electro on Vulture to bona fide English folk traditions on the title track, Thickets, and Blackdown, and taking in dramatic string & choir laden ruminations on loneliness such as Damaris and Theseus, as well as full-on guitar driven anthemic rock (Hard Times), and perfect symbioses of all of this distilled into perfect dissonant pop nuggets (Oblivion), it covers all the bases that Patrick has traversed through his career thus far, only now it does so with a stronger purpose, with more accomplished songs - with a sense of ambition and pride and imperative.
Yes, it verges on overblown on numerous occasions; yes, choirs are deployed; yes, Patrick's vocals are now dramatically accomplished and refined rather than the castrato terror that typified his debut: but this is what happens when a gifted boy grows into a talented man. Some people will doubtless see this as a betrayal or a loss; others will recognise it as an evolution.
That £100,000 is well spent, too, because this is a gorgeous-sounding record, rich with timbre and scale, depth and dynamics, flutes and violas and sequencers and ancient synthesisers and guitars and drums and ukulele and grand piano and church organ and double bass and sitar and "circuit bent mobile phone" and cutlery percussion and massed voices recorded and mixed with real skill and attention to sonic detail.
If you can't tell, I think this is Patrick Wolf's masterpiece.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Baroque and Roll Splendour, 13 Jun 2009
That any single recording might contain an Ondes Martenot
(an extraordinary sonic tool beloved by the composer Olivier Messiaen)
and the sublimely strange Tilda Swinton might seem almost too
much to ask for but they are both to be found here in
Mr Wolf's new offering 'The Bachelor' in very fine fettle
and in perfect working order.
Lycanthropic associations aside this Old Wolf has found
much to admire in his younger namesake's latest release.
The album is a veritable tour de force.
This is quite extraordinary music. Imagination, adroit
musicianship and palpably real passion coalesce in
compositions of wonderfully realised technical complexity
and blistering emotional range.
The forces that he has amassed for the project play and sing
their hearts out for him.
Choirs and strings, together with electronic and acoustic
elements, combine to produce some of the most vivid and thrilling
soundscapes it has been my privilege to hear in the last decade.
Trust me it really, really is that good !
'Hard Times' kicks the collection off in upliftingly raucous style.
The strings and gospel choir are a truly inspirational and rousing inclusion.
The loose-limbed and loping blues of title track
'The Bachelor' is a hoot !
'Who Will' is an anthemic song, whose secular hymn-like
ambience made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
I possess hair aplenty and it still hasn't come down !
'Battle' is a proud, uncompromising cris-de-coeur.
A defiant paean against prejudice.
(Every bit as raw and wonderful as Bjork's 'Declare Independence').
'The Sun Is Often Out' is a heartrending outpouring of grief and loss.
Profoundly affecting.
Ms Swinton's lyrical echoes are embedded subtly in the
slow march of 'Theseus' imbuing a great song with even
greater colour and depth. A small masterpiece.
Mr Wolf has pulled off a very rare thing with this labour of love.
A perfect album in fact.
Essential.
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7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Bachelor by Patrick Wolf..., 3 Jun 2009
A consummate artist who will never settle for churning out the ordinary. This time around Patrick Wolf has launched into another direction of greatness. The Bachelor is epic, and much more so than any other Patrick Wolf album (or any other album that comes to mind for that matter). Upbeat, dark, electro, camp, rock, with lush dialogue: all in all, category defying. The album plays-out like an elevation from earth to air, pure and majestic. The fusion of Celtic folk with electro is genius, even for Patrick Wolf. Regardless of pace, this is an artist who remains consistent throughout in his ability to move: demanding, overwhelming and poignant. Battles however is the only track that fails to ignite. My only other criticism is not having The Tinderbox included on the album, instead shunted to a b-side (go find it!). The mainstream will no doubt struggle again with this album. Patrick Wolf isn't playing it safe. Still, it is near impossible to understand anyone who dismisses Patrick Wolf and his talents. If The Bachelor fails to breakthrough beyond Patrick's fan base, rest assured it will be revisited in the future and revelled en-masse. The Bachelor has redefined many perspectives for me. I can't recommend this album enough. Extraordinary.
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