Patrick Wolf

Patrick Wolf does not believe in subtlety. The British songwriter changes his hair color on a whim (from blonde to red to black), he makes dramatic statements about quitting music only to retract them two days later, and his wardrobe choices are vibrant at best—full of sparkled sleeveless vests and fur collars. It's no wonder that his third record, and his first for a major label, would be an appropriate reflection of the 6' 4" personality.

With blaring horns and stomping drums, The Magic Position arrives as a boisterous, theatrical, and utterly professional pop record. And despite Wolf's young 23 years of age, his crooning vocal confidence is simultaneously exhilarating and unnerving (on "Magpie," he is even perfectly capable of dueting with Marianne Faithful). Sometimes, his performance even suggests an agreeable Morrissey. But ultimately, the unadulterated glitchy pop found in songs like "Get Lost" and "Accident and Emergency" proves that Wolf's latest record is in fact magical.

- Arye Dworken
05.04.07

Brooding, multi-talented indie prince Patrick Wolf lets a little sunshine in on his third full-length album, the undeniably catchy but highly unstable The Magic Position. Released in 2005, Wind in the Wires struck a nice balance between eerie British folk-inspired imagery/instrumentation and general home-recorded electronic cacophony. It was a deeply personal, slightly guarded, and occasionally brutal slice of brain tissue that promised great things from the young singer/violinist. That skull is open to the public on The Magic Position, and while the results can be a little spotty, the exhibit itself is impossible to ignore. Wolf is blissfully unafraid of pomp and circumstance, an observation lent weight by the pulse-quickening opener, "Overture." With its refrain of "Come on, open wide and let some light in," it's the perfect litmus test for potential listeners, as what follows is essentially the equivalent of a walk in the rain with the sun peeking out and the umbrella in the trash. The songs are more vibrant and confident (even danceable) than anything he's released in the past. The title cut, with its mechanical Motown-inspired backbeat and strings, avoids the twee-soul of Belle & Sebastian by hinging on Wolf's deep baritone. It, like much of the record, juggles irony and hope with lust and love in a way that dismisses the opinions of the masses without insulting them. That occasionally barbed baritone is what keeps Wolf with one foot so firmly planted in the dark and, like late-'80s Depeche Mode, it's the juxtaposition between the two worlds that keeps things so interesting. The Magic Position loses a little focus near the end, but flashes of inspired lunacy like the jarring arrival of a spectral Marianne Faithfull on the spooky "Magpie" help to make this unpredictable collection of Victorian-peaked electro/folk-pop so hard to dislike. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide