Pitchfork

Flaunting the most ridiculous album cover since Shalamar's Big Fun, Patrick Wolf's The Magic Position is all about full-on, high-camp splendor. The idea is that this is a new Patrick Wolf: trading sulk for swagger, "living and loving in the major key." At face value, it all sounds a little bi-polar, but indeed, the album's title song does everything it can to turn his identity completely inside-out.

All the desire for sex and intimacy that used to lurk in the margins of his music is now worn proudly on his sleeve, and where his Bjork-like soundscaping once aimed for subtlety and atmosphere, this track is a candy-coated pop toy filled with all types of sonic springs and levers: Hand-claps, squealing kiddie-choirs, bouncy strings, and a steadily ascending xylophone all cleanly interlock with a thumping dance rhythm and one cheeky double-entendre of a chorus.

What hasn’t changed, though, is that Wolf still does a much more convincing job of expressing joy through his sounds than he does with his singing. Vocally, he’s still the same vampire he's always been-- capable of hearing and seeing what love is supposed to be like, but presumably unable to actually feel it.

MP3: > Patrick Wolf: "The Magic Position"
[from The Magic Position; due 05/01/07 on Low Altitude/Universal]