Martha Wainwright - I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too (Drowned In Sound)
3/5
By: Michael Cragg
It might be best to start with that title. Every time I see it written down I want to find Martha Wainwright and shake her by the shoulders and ask "why Martha? Why? Even Alanis Morissette would have seen that it's too wordy and not nearly as clever as you think it is". But hey, it's her choice, and maybe she just felt like experimenting after her eponymous debut album, an album that happened to include the devastatingly titled single 'Bloody Mother F**king Asshole'. Written about her father, singer and actor Loudon Wainwright III, it was the highlight of a debut album that showed great promise but also showed an artist tentatively stepping into the limelight. It didn't help that most of the limelight was being eaten up by brother Rufus whose grandiose albums had found their way to the top of most critics lists.
I Know Your Married... (I won't write it out in full!) aims to move Martha centre stage and it does this by applying a better balance of light and shade. As good as parts of her debut were, it was sometimes quite a slog listening to the whole thing in one sitting, misery and heartbreak can make for great art but not always for great entertainment. Second time round, and backed with a handful of new producers and a new husband, Wainwright has fashioned a set of songs full of melodic inventiveness, from the undulating opener 'Bleeding All Over You' to the hushed reverie of 'Hearts Club Band'. Elsewhere, on 'You Cheated Me', Wainwright nails the one thing missing so far and that's a proper single, one that could actually dent the charts.
It's not all good though. There are times, most specifically on 'Tower', when Wainwright's voice becomes too shrill to be enjoyed and for all the experimentation with the vocal melodies it's sometimes nice to hear her singing with some restraint as on the lovely 'So Many Friends'. No excuses can be made, however, for the one major misstep that comes in the form of 'See Emily Play'. Yes, it's a Pink Floyd cover and no it doesn't feature any keyboard wizardry or psychedelic nonsense that made the original so good. In fact, with these elements missing it just becomes a fairly bland song that adds nothing to the album as a whole. Usually such a travesty would damage an album, but luckily for Wainwright she's got enough quality songs of her own to remain unscathed. Maybe next time she should lay off the covers and let someone else pick the album title.
Artists in this article: Martha Wainwright
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