Firstly, I need to say, this album definitely made me love Rufus again. I’d sort of gone off him recently in one of those sort of stupid, “actually, he’s okay, it’s just the majority of his fans that piss me off, so I’m out,” sort of deals. That combined with the concert I went to of his that was just very disappointing in a lot of ways (again, not entirely to do with the man himself). What I’d hoped for from this album, following the extremely self-indulgent “Want” project (“Want Two” in particular – not saying they weren’t great albums, but sometimes the classical stuff was a little overwhelming), was the most unabashed pop Rufus is able to deliver. For the most part, I can’t complain. It starts brilliantly – “Do I Disappoint You” sets the hairs on the back of your neck on end within seconds, and it’s followed by my absolute favourite by far on the album, “Going to a Town” (“I’m going to a town that has already been burnt down – I’m so tired of you, America …”)

The first half of the album is better than the second half, which ends on the hugely disappointing title track, which is about the most pointless song I’ve ever heard – the title of this record evokes so many things, and what the song turns out to be about is just … really, really, pointless. Maybe if it wasn’t the title track, maybe if it came somewhere in the middle of the album, sure, it’s an okay song … but not a title track or finale, not by a long shot. But like I said, for its highlights, I really can’t complain about this album. For better or worse, it’s the best album of the year I’ve heard so far, and I’m sure people will want to crucify me for saying so, but it only narrowly beats out the new Avril Lavigne record in my books.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 at 7:45 pm and is filed under 4 gold discs, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.