Rufus Wainwright - "Folkocracy"

I really didn't know what I was walking into here

The transition from the end of the A7x album to the start of this one was a huge leap in quality. Breathtaking, really.

…And then it failed to last. It got so bad…so fast…And it hits *comical* levels of bad. Not only in that the songs are generally all well-known folk songs like “Shenandoah”, which, I *swear*, I had to perform some version of at least once a year in chorus classes.

But then there are completely unironic, serious performances of “Hush Little Baby” and “Cotton-Eyed Joe”. For the latter, Chaka Khan’s silky, bluesy vocals are gorgeous, but it doesn’t change the fact that they’re being wasted on this slow, romantic iteration of “Cotton-Eyed Joe”. Wainwright takes all of the songs seriously, which is, I think, the fatal mistake here. Because many of these songs should be considered unambiguously DEAD when it comes to serious modern music releases. There are enough versions existing in digital form to live long into the future.

The Hawaiian folk song here just feels kinda disrespectful, honestly.

There’s so much bad here. As much as I enjoyed the first two tracks, “Alone” and “Heading for Home”, most of the rest is unlistenable.

Rating: Red