Pop music takes a hit. Again.
Score one for Rufus Wainwright whose latest Poses demystifies music too accessible for the art world but too original and daring for commercial radio. Rather, he handles both and brilliantly blends assumptions about each.
Poses is pop music, but textured in such a way that sounds different, even original. By allowing both his music and his lyrics to veer in and out of ideas that, if overdone, would be vanilla pop clich‚s, Wainwright manages to avoid clich‚ entirely.
In the album's precious opener, lyrics as ordinary as "Cigarettes and chocolate milk/ These are just a couple of my cravings" sidle up alongside such lyrical mastery as "Playing with prodigal sons/ Takes a lot of sentimental valiums/ Can't expect the world to be your Raggedy Andy/ While running on empty/ You little old doll with a frown." In setting up this contrast between the plain and the brilliant, Wainwright proves that he has complete control over both realms.
Musically, Poses succeeds in doing the very same thing. The title track begins as a simple, soft piano ballad walking around predictable major chords, but soon the melody gives way to unexpected modulations and unearthly vocal harmonies that, instead of merely complementing the song's direction, take it in another direction entirely.
The end result proves once again that pop music doesn't have to be watered down or oversimplified. Rufus Wainwright is able to make musical assertions -- that variation, originality, intrigue and experimentation need not be confined to music exclusively labeled as "artsy" -- and he can completely get away with it.
