3. Patrick Wolf "Wind in the Wires"
It was very hard for me to pick my favorite Patrick Wolf album because he's an extremely consistent artist. I had to be slightly shallow about it and think less about what was most creative and what is the best as an album and pick whichever one had most of my favorite songs on it. So Wind in the Wires has won but if you were to honestly ask me what was the best Patrick Wolf album i'd tell you there was no such thing. Whatever he's doing he puts himself entirely into and as a result of this every single one of his albums is a quality release. His influences are all over the place, from Nick Drake to David Bowie. Throughout his discography hes managed to incorporate a variety of these influences to create a unique blend of electronica, folk and other things. It's really hard to figure out just where his influences really come from and it isn't really surprising considering his eclectic tastes in music. Patrick often suggests you should go into the record store pick what has the most attractive cover and listening to it because that's how he got into a lot of his favorite artists. So the fact his first album is all over the place, his second is a focused folktronica release and the third is a pop album really isn't all that surprising.
One thing I want to note before jumping into this review is Patrick Wolf did everything on this album except two things. The clarinet on Wind in the Wires and the female choir in Teignmouth, he even produced it. When I found this out I was extremely impressed. I mean we're not talking your typical singer/songwriter album consisting of an acoustic guitar with some drums and bass sprinkled in to give it a more full sound. We're talking violins, ukuleles, pianos, accordions, drums, electronics and a variety of zithers.
Onto the material of the album, like English singer/songwriter before Vashti Bunyan, Patrick Wolf is obsessed with geography, constantly naming places in his song he creates a map of the places he's been through sound. Wind in the Wires kind of serves as a musical document of his tours and various travels lyrically, for once Patrick Wolf is an artist who's lyrics aren't the fascination with me so I won't spend too much time talking about them. What really attracts me hear is just the sound of it. I don't know much about violinists so I won't comment on him being one of the greatest but I think his string arrangements are beautiful and well done and I think I've heard enough to comment on that. His musical approach is interesting because he tries to be as creative and original as it as possible he tries to not listen to much music when writing as to avoid it sounding similar to anything else or being too influenced by something, though certain influences often shine through. I just love everything about it, Patrick Wolf's deep baritone voice over his circus of instruments all deeply rooted in British folk is beautiful sounding.
I should wrap this up i've gone on more about this album than I meant to. Wind in the Wires was one of the first indie albums I got into. Imonlydancing got me into it, I think it was around the time of its release actually either way she knew I liked Bright Eyes and thought I should give him ago and I did like it a lot. It's one of the few albums I got into in 2005 that I still like today and he's one of the few artists I got into around that time that I still like today. Patrick Wolf is in my top three favorite artists ever and Wind in the Wires is probably the best album of his to start with because it sort of touches on some of the stuff in the Magic Position and sort of touches on the stuff in Lycanthropy too so it allows you to hop to either album pretty well. I think Patrick Wolf is easily one of the most creative, talented and under appreciated artists of the past decade and his music combines a variety of styles and sounds to create a beautifully orchestrated sound and Wind in the Wires stands as a testament to his genius.
Favorite Songs: The Gypsy King, Tristan, The Libertine, The Railway House, Teignmouth, Wind in the Wires, Eulogy
MySpace.com - patrick wolf - UK - Pop - www.myspace.com/officialpatrickwolf