Lupercalia

This album is unrelentingly cheerful. Which makes me go *finally* because Wolf has always been a master at the anthemic and uplifting. Even when the lyrics themselves aren't the most cheerful there's something soaring about his arrangements that make me happy. If I had one complaint about Wolf, then it's his tendency to pack anything and everything into an album. The Magic Position and The Bachelor both suffered for this. Sure, they had some cracking songs, and Overture from The Magic Position remains a favourite of mine, but there were also, in my opinion, some monumentally guff songs included.

There's no denying that he's musically and lyrically very clever but over the past two albums I've felt that he's needed to strip it back and tone it down a bit. And he has, wonderfully. Up to this point, my favourite album has been Wind in the Wires, a fabulous mix of traditional folk and the experimental stuff that I come to associate with Wolf. That album is by no means perfect either but I love it none the less.

Lupercalia is a different beast entirely when compared to his other releases. For one, it's positive lyrically on almost every track (he kisses him on Bermondsey Street and, standing brave on the balls of his feet, declares this the greatest love of the century), probably due to the fact he's engaged to be married to his partner (who gets a song named after him). This happiness completely saturates the album. And it's great. It's beautiful even. It makes a change from the utterly miserable, but no less brilliant, tone of The Bachelor. It's an album that deserves to be played loudly, sung at the top of your lungs with a big smile on your face.

It's also an album that is unashamedly poppy. It's "grown up" pop with depth and character, not the soulless stuff that seems to get churned out all the time. The string arrangements, the pomp and extravagance, are still there but they complement the songs rather than overpower them. And if some fans are disgruntled by this, then tough, because I think Lupercalia will generate Wolf a lot of new fans; I know my own mother is finally understanding what I love about him. The fabulous songs that are just off the mainstream and the fact that you really don't know what sort of thing he'll release next.

Is it perfect? Nope, but it's darn near close to it. It surpasses Wind in the Wires in my eyes, and it pains me slightly to say so as that is such a wonderful album and special to me, but Lupercalia is Patrick at the top of his game and, for me, there is unlikely to be a finer album released this year.

There is only one word for this, and that is joy. The artist is obviously very happy at the moment and his joy explodes from the opening of the first track 'The City' and barely lets up until the close of the album. This is Patrick's most straight forward album but certainly not dumbed down. The City and House should almost certainly become modern classics.

Patrick Wolf is in LOVE and he wants the whole wide wonky world to know!
We should be happy for him. 'Lupercalia' finds him sounding far cheerier than
he has ever seemed before. The album is overflowing with warm positivity
and vibrant, tip-top, merry-go-round enthusiasm. Love can do that to you!

No longer 'The Batchelor' of 2009, these eleven wonderful songs prove what
we had really known all along. Mr Wolf is one of the country's very finest
songwriters. Listen to the glorious 'House' if any further proof were needed.
The melody, the arrangement, the harmonies, the words and that stunningly
rich baritone voice coalesce together into one juicily transcendent whole!
(By now it is probable that you will have noticed that I like this album!)

The romance continues unabated on 'Bermondsey Street'; a proudly defiant
anthem; a forceful challenge to blind prejudice and hatred. Bravo Mr Wolf!

The energy and the quality don't let up for a moment. The eighties sonic
elements and folksy threads which have always defined the best of his work
are still here but more subtely and gently integrated into a coherent entity.
Coming in at a little under three minutes 'The Future' is yet another powerful
manifestation of a creative imagination firing on all six cylinders.
Play it loud and you will feel the floor tilt under your feet!

Crikey! It's hard to pick a favorite amongst such fine fare but if I had to
reach for one then it would have to be 'Together'. It's a big, big song, full
of passion, sung from the heart with both spirit and that wonderfully controlled
vibrato fully engaged. Mr Wolf is as fine a producer as he is a performer.
(Having said that the beautiful 'Armistice' comes a very close second!)

Final track 'The Falcons', with its scintillating string section, brings
'Lupercalia' to an enthralling, uplifting and truly magisterial conclusion.

You will find all manner of wonders here. A rite of passage in every sense!

Essential.