patrick wolf

if i want to be taken seriously as a reviewer I'll need to start giving star ratings on music I listen to, but first a brief history on the enigma that is patrick wolf, and my love for him.

i first heard patrick wolf in 2006 after downloading lycanthropy & wind in the wires after he did a particularly strange interview in Q.

gave it a listen, at first i wasn't impressed.

it wasn't until about 8 months later, after i got home from a new years party & itunes offered up bluebells as there new year, new music free download of the week. bluebells instantly appeared to a 16 year old williambrown, and i started listening to the previous 2 albums, they grew on me like a wildfire burning through a forest, and so did patrick wolf. then i read about his new album, the magic position on pitchfork. so i spent the next month getting excited about that anyway, and when it finally came out, it went into heavy rotation on my ipod along with the other two albums, until the macbook theft of 2007.

I'd listen to him with little bursts of excitement over the next 2 years, but it just wasn't the same, patrick wolf symbolised a moment in time for me, and that moment ended when my macbook was stolen. recently i had got back into him for reasons i'm not at liberty to divulge. i had heard about the whole idea that battle was going to be up on bandstocks.com for a tenner+, and then i heard about it being split into two albums because he wasn't such a sad sad sad man anymore, but basically wasn't interested. but as i was saying, i recently got back into him in a big big way, downloaded his new album, the bachelor, about 2 weeks ago and finally gave a listen last night. if i had to use one phrase to describe it, it would be 'beautifully haunting', and is a fantastic follow up to the magic position, even going so far as to overshadow it. if i had to pick one track to convice the three of you reading to listen to patrick wolf, it would be 'vulture' which i'm told is about his visit to santa monica where he lived with a cult became possessed by evil spirits for a week.

which is a reason not to go to santa monica anyway.

rating: 4.5 out of 5

patrick will be playing the futures tent at tintheperk on the sunday. you can download his new single 'vulture' for free here and the new album 'the bachelor' from itunes here