We don’t blame Rufus Wainwright for making an indulgent album. His voice is beautiful, his phrasing adventurous and his arrangements intense. “Want Two” is an appropriate response to last year’s self-conscious disc, “Want One,” a full exposure of his classical and cabaret pedigree under the thin guise of pop. With fleshy string arrangements and grandiose melody lines, Wainwright clearly subscribes to the “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” school. But the material could stand a bit of pruning—as “One” and “Two” yield some of the same produce, they might as well have come from the same tree. And, much like his previous three albums, Wainwright has a way of saying much but revealing little; with such a thematically sensitive album, intimacy is just out of reach, intentionally or not. Regardless, Wainwright achieves much as a maturing songwriter with “Want Two,” his errant siren songs served well by his vanity, libido and noble intentions.—KH
