marnie

Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor

Patrick Wolf- the genius.

>the album , 'the bachelor' came out June the 1st.
>part one of the double album ' Battle'
>features the like of the actress Tilda Swinton, Folk singer Eliza Carthy, electro pop pioneer Alec empire and Tomas Bloch ,the only person in the world able to play the crystal bachet(instrument made of crystal and steel).

TRACKLIST- and a rough outline of what they mean:

1. Kriegspiel- an angry intorduction
2. Hard Times- song about crisis and urging people to act
3. Oblivion - Iraq war, soldiers
4. The Bachelor- old folk poem adapted
5. Damaris - story of one of patrick wolfs ancestors and their story of love
6. Thickets - about hackney wick and the marshes
   
7. Count of Casualty - iraq war casualty, foolishness
   
8. Who Will? - lack of love
   
9. Vulture - when you feel impure and dirty
   
10. Blackdown -father getting cancer
11. The Sun Is Often Out - suiscide of good friend
    
12. Theseus - once you have what you've always wanted and your still not happy what do u do?
    
13. Battle - battle agaisnt conforming to preconceptions
    
14. The Messenger - looking back upon travels
    

- Patrick Wolf is my favorite singer/artist ever so i'll be a little biased on this one.

+ Even form the album cover you can see this is album that indicates, Wolf's roots back at "lyncathropy" with the demonstration on his electronic influences on tracks such as 'Count of Casualty' and folk sons such as ' the bachelor' and 'blackdown'.
+ huge string sections creating a really big sound, but on 'sun is often out' a song about the suicide of a friend, there are loads of orchestral strings , yet due to the tempo of the piece a possible tune is absent.
+ Quoting from prefixmag.com :

"This is exactly how Patrick Wolf’s music should be listened to -- headphones on and up while in a deep focus as you may normally dedicate to a Sunday crossword puzzle. Without careful listening, the blanket of sound that Wolf lays out on his fourth album, The Bachelor, becomes noisy and oppressive. However, applying the attention it demands, it can become a guessing game that could be called Name That Instrument, revealing moments of true inspiration."

I love this album, its musical genius to me and with each song the story and purpose of it slowly becomes evident the more you listen. Give it time.

9.5

BUY: Oblivion, Theseus, Count of Casualty and the two singles:(Hard times and Vulture)

Oblivion:


Theseus:

The Theremin + The Dulcimer...with patrick wolf.

- THOUGHT I"D BLOG ABOUT SOMETHING DIFFERENT, SOME WEIRD (AMAZING) INSTRUMENTS
-The Theremin was created by Leon Theremin. (ELECTRIC)
-Sound created through , two radio antennae, and the interfereance caused by your hand moving in between the two signals.
-This instrument is so cool, there is no physically contact. Just your hands floating in the gap between the two antenae. <-----------like you can see in the pic.
- Patrick Wolf created his first theremin when he was 16!
-It appears a few times in the album "the magic position" i know he uses it in "accident and emergency" live, but i can only really hear it in Get lost howling throughout. This is a really bad example as you can barely hear it , But it's a sweet song, GET LOST:



Appalachian Dulcimer is an old folk instrument which has been around for years(ACOUSTIC)
-Its like a stretched guitar, excpet the hole body has frets on it... if that makes sense.


- Jeff buckley, Cyndi Lauper and Joni Mitchell along with Patrick wolf all play the Appalachian Dulcimer.
- Patrick Wolf has used one for a while now, but it particularly features of his new album "the bachelor", which is out on the 1st of june. Im holding out on listening to it until i get my copy in the post. p.s please don't illegally download it. BUY IT
- It is used on the track Theseus, which i've heard from past demo's and live recordings.
- But this song is form the new album, from a live recording with the Guardian news paper
THE BACHELOR: