FFWD Weekly
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| Music by FFWD Staff Rufus Wainwright To say Rufus Wainwright has had a pretty good year is akin to saying Michael Moriarty is a little goofy. Here’s just some of the highlights that have followed the release of his self-titled debut: a New Year’s Eve themed Gap TV ad that saw record sales immediately jump by over 3,000 copies; late night appearances with David Letterman and Conan O’Brien; a jaunt to Japan where he was mauled by his "little legion of Asian fans"; U.S. tours with Sean Lennon, Lisa Loeb, and fellow Canucks the Barenaked Ladies, who were at the height of their southern popularity; a Juno for best alternative album; not to mention prominent spots on numerous end-of-the-year lists and being named best new artist by Rolling Stone. So with all of those things to choose from, it’s odd – some might say a little goofy – to hear what he deems to be the most memorable moment from a whirlwind 12 months. "It sounds really silly, but I did the show CBS Sunday Morning... and I didn’t realize this at the time when I did it, but it’s the old Charles Kuralt show and if he was still alive he would have been narrating it," Wainwright says, with a healthy amount of reverence. "That was kind of a shock because I used to watch that all the time with my grandmother. It’s a very respected high-brow but still mainstream kind of thing, and that was kind of impressive to get that on my first album." It’s even more impressive when you actually take into account the album that all of this has been generated from. There’s no denying that it’s a remarkably likable disc of affecting pop, it’s just that it was and remains so removed from anything else out there. Slow, mature, finely crafted contemporary pop music topped off with confident, retro, love song crooning isn’t what the kids seem to be diggin’ these days. And though it’s certainly not a Number One hit, Wainwright’s debut also isn’t what it initially seemed destined to become – one of those frustrating gems that would never be heard by anyone who actually had to pay for it, save those rare individuals who listen to critics. Maybe that’s because, as usual, destiny didn’t take into account the human will. "I mean, it’s not a massively popular record and I’m not selling millions of copies," Wainwright says. "(But) in terms of getting what I’ve received, I’ve worked really hard for that and I’ve really put my nose to the grindstone, so I think I deserve it. But I guess I’m surprised that I conquered it, in the end. "A lot of it’s to do with timing.... I think that if the album had come out perhaps three years earlier that’s precisely what would have happened, it would have been discarded immediately. There was no real movement when my record came out in terms of what is great pop music, because frankly there wasn’t a lot of it at the time. "It offered a new perspective.... It posed the question, ‘Could we go this way? Could we become more romantic and less nihilistic? Can we do this?’ And there are people who believe we can." Thankfully, more than you’d expect. |
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