animinimalism:

VMAN » FROM VMAN 26: GAME CHANGE

THE LONG, OFT BRUTAL BUT ALWAYS BEAUTIFUL BALLAD OF RUFUS WAINWRIGHT CONTINUES THIS SUMMER WITH OUT OF THE GAME, HIS SEVENTH STUDIO ALBUM. THIS TIME HE’S GOT HIS EYE ON THE MAINSTREAM AND A RONSON TO BACK HIM UP

PHOTOGRAPHY MACIEK KOBIELSKI
FASHION TOM VAN DORPE
TEXT GIANCARLO DITRAPANO

Throughout the past decade, Rufus Wainwright has been shaming most other musicians on the scene in an awfully bad way. It’s not a contest, but yes it is, and sometimes one can hardly bear to look at how far Wainwright is pulling ahead, ensuring that long after all of us are buried his music will be played. Aside from his prodigious talent, it’s the sincerity and bravery of his work that have laid the groundwork for longevity. A quote from Wainwright around the time of his second album mentions how jealous he was of all the attention and fame the Strokes and the White Stripes were receiving. Now it’s like, LOL—who?

Wainwright has released a very steady stream of vulnerable and unapologetic rock albums, gone fantasy for a stint with the Judy Garland–at-Carnegie-Hall bit, written an opera, and then put out his most raw albums to date, using only a piano and the little bell in his throat (All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu). With lyrics and themes steeped in both classicism and the beautiful and heartbreaking world of gay New York City drug life, Wainwright’s work also has this less-than-subtle “I’m gay, fuck you” quality to it, a sentiment many homosexual artists are too weak-willed to come out and say, which at this point in Santorum-minded America they need to be not just saying but repeating.

Wainwright’s direction for Out of the Game (on sale now via Decca Records) is more commercial, radio-friendly. He says he wants something to throw on and turn up when you’re driving in your car, or to play when you want to dance. (But, um, what does he think we’ve been doing with his past albums?) So cool-haired Mark Ronson got on board to help this wish along. Unlike most producers, whose names are often forgotten (or never learned to begin with), Ronson is someone music fans are already well aware of, having produced one of the biggest albums of the last decade (Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black). If anyone was going to pull this off, it was him.

For the complete story from VMAN 26, CLICK HERE! VMAN 26 is on sale May 17.