All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu | B-

Rufus Wainwright has never been afraid to be painfully open with his fans. His latest album, All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu, is no exception. Wainwright sings of alienation, unrequited love, and the terminal cancer of his mother, folk singer Kate McGarrigle.

Wainwright begins with the voyeuristic "Who Are You, New York?" Over a dizzying, intensifying piano, he sings of watching someone—or something—at various famed locales and accompanying existential anxiety. The song's abrupt end leaves the track with an unfinished, and unsettling, quality for the listener.

"Martha" is arguably the album's best song. Wainwright sings as though leaving a voicemail for his sister Martha, a musician in her own right. His troubled relationship with her is hinted at as he tells of his mother's failing health. Here, Wainwright's voice is both nasally andcaptivating. He is truly desperate for any human contact as he sings the final words, "Please call me back..."
Three of the songs from Lulu are musical adaptations of Shakespeare's sonnets. "Sonnet 43," from which the album gets its name, describes the emptiness in life until seeing his beloved. Slowly pounding piano accompanies Wainwright as he croons and swoons at the chance of a reunion. This song flows nicely with the other two sonnets, working as a nine-minute reverie.
"Zebulon" ends the album on a bizarre, unsatisfying note. Lines like "Your nose was always too big for your face/Still, it made you look kinda sexy" are forced and awkward. Coupled with a dragged-out piano melody, the song veers toward bad cabaret. While Lulu features some gems, it needs more focus so as to better showcase the fragile songwriter Wainwright is.