All My CDs, pt. 119: Want Two

I only have five more CDs to review before I’m done with my entire collection, and this project. I’ll have all reviews posted just in time for the end of 2015. After that, it’ll be a short break before I’m back with more to say, just not all of it on the subject of CDs that I own. Some of it will be about CDs I do not own. Some of it will be about things I own that are not CDs. Some of it will be about things that are not CDs and that I do not own. Some of it will be about things that could never be owned, like freedom or death or people. Some of it will be about things that will never be found on CD, like the voice of morning sunshine and the taste of blueberries.

I’m looking forward to an exciting new year.

Want Two - Rufus Wainwright

I got this album a few years after I got Want One, mainly because I had heard the song Little Sister and enjoyed it. It’s quite obviously a sequel, and not just due to the title. The cover art for each echoes the style and symbolism of the other, the major difference being that while Want One’s cover features pictures of Rufus dressed as a medieval knight with a sword, in Want Two’s he is dressed as a medieval lady with a distaff. A distaff is a tool used for spinning fiber into yarn or thread, and has since ancient times symbolized femininity - hence, it seems Want Two is intended to be the distaff counterpart to Want One, expressing female points of view or experiences.

And indeed a few of the songs do focus on women, such as Little Sister which humorously approaches the historical marginalization of women from an unashamed male standpoint, and The Art Teacher which tells a story of unrequited love from a woman’s point of view. Neither is exactly a feminist song, which is refreshing in a way; they focus on women’s struggles for recognition against expectations of passivity and properness, but in neither song is that status quo actually challenged. So it has been for most people for most of history.

Other than those two songs, though, there isn’t a huge difference between this album and Want One that makes it more inherently feminine. They’re similar in style, just as their covers are similar in style. If there’s a difference I can put my finger on it’s that Want Two might be slightly more experimental, a little more “out there”, taking a few more risks with weird sounds and lyrics. But even that is a subtle difference and possibly a subjective one.

Also worth noting is that Want Two has a few songs devoted to overt sexuality (such as Old Whore’s Diet), as well as to religious imagery (such as Agnus Dei). Funnily, Gay Messiah covers both areas at once, borrowing Christian mythological themes and affectionately applying gay stereotypes. Both sex and spirituality, as well as homosexuality, have historically been associated with femininity. Was that the intent behind making this album implicitly the female counterpoint to its predecessor? Or is the overall similarity in their styles intended to convey that there is no real, meaningful difference between the genders, as much as our history insists otherwise?

My guess is, a little bit of both.

Next: Wheel