POSES   -   Rufus Wainwright

YEAR:  2001
LABEL:  Dreamworks
TRACK LISTING:  Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk,  Greek Song,  Poses,  Shadows,  California,  The Tower of Learning,  Grey Gardens,  Rebel Prince,  The Consort,  One Man Guy,  Evil Angel,  In A Graveyard,  Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (Reprise)
IMPRESSIONS:  A sweeping, baroque cavalcade of excess and paean to debauchery, POSES won the Penguin Award for Album of the Year (an honour it shares with Coldplay's PARACHUTES in the only tie ever reached in the category).  The absolute perfect word to describe this album was coined by Allmusic's Zac Johnson when he dubbed the album "popera":  a combination of pop and opera.  It is indeed operatic in a smudged mascara kind of way with faded roses trampled underfoot and glasses of absinthe waiting.  Or rather glasses of chocolate milk.  Most of the album was written during Wainwright's stay at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City which perhaps accounts for the album's sound of ornate dissipation.     
MY FAVOURITE TRACKS:  Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk,  Greek Song,  Poses,  California,  The Tower of Learning,  Grey Gardens,  Rebel Prince,  One Man Guy,  In A Graveyard,  Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (Reprise)
GUEST ARTISTS:  Melissa Auf der Mar (bass, backing vocals on "Evil Angel"), Jim Keltner (drums on "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk", "The Consort" and "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk (Reprise)"),  Teddy Thompson (backing vocals on "California" and "One Man Guy", guitar on "One Man Guy"),  Martha Wainwright (backing vocals on "Poses", "California", "Rebel Prince", "One Man Guy" and "Evil Angel"), 
FACT SHEET:  POSES is Rufus Wainwright's second album.  "One Man Guy" is a cover of his father Loudon Wainwright III's song.  "Shadows" was co-written with the Propellorheads' Alex Gifford.  "Grey Gardens" is a tribute to the documentary film of the same name and Thomas Mann's "DEATH IN VENICE"; a soundbyte of dialogue spoken by "Little Edie" Beale is taken from the film.