ISSUED as a companion piece to Want One, released last year, Want Two is a rich treat.
If it sometimes seems an indulgence too far, that's the way Wainwright likes it. This gay icon, culture pin-up and songwriting son of a folkie family throws everything into his showy songs, grand-standing about his private tortures, yet also imagining himself into other situations (as in The Art Teacher). Who else would dare start an album with the Latin invocation Angus Dei, here given an Arabic setting? This is outrageously ornate music, rococo pop tunes with a lethal calorie content - at times almost painfully beautiful, by turns waspish, ebulliently cocky and affectingly quiet. Highlights include Little Sister, Gay Messiah and Old Whore's Diet, a soaring operatic duet with Antony of Antony and the Johnsons.
Updated: 08:55 Thursday, March 17, 2005
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