Graham Reid | | <1 min read
It's perhaps enough to note that this is Art Music in which Wainwright sings largely chorus-free, sweeping lyrics over the top of grandiose and often grandiloquent solo piano and addresses the death of his mother Kate (his greatest supporter and critics, he says) and dedicates it to his sister Martha, "the bright lady".
This is also a song cycle (Lulu is that which lurks within us but we have to abandon to save ourselves) but the consistent tone of high drama and the narrow musical framework will make this a test for most.
Songs like Martha ("time to go up north and see mother") have a therapetic quality and this Wainwright continues that family tradition started by his father of naked, soul bearing. Zebulon is beautifully spare and the standout.
Brave but not an easy one. It's been filed.
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