Rufus Wainwright: "Going To A Town"

“We ain’t going to the town / We’re going to the city,” Interpol’s Paul Banks sang on Antics (2004). Likewise, Rufus Wainwright has spent his career in a distinctly urban mode, from the vignettes of New York and Los Angeles present on Poses (2001) to the theatrical productions that marked Want One (2003) and Want Two (2004). But no longer, he claims. “I got a life to live / I got a soul to feed / I got a dream to heed,” he sings on the back-to-basics “Going To a Town,” the lead single from his upcoming Release the Stars.

He seems weary and despairing -- “I’m going to a town that’s already been burned down / I’m so tired of America” -- and unlike the Arcade Fire, doesn’t feel a need to fight that apathy with melodrama and guitar riffs. Still, Wainwright sounds oddly rejuvenated. “Going To a Town” peels away the costuming and make-up that left the Want albums so cluttered and chorus-line large; there are backing singers here, yes, and behind them a string section. A lead guitar ambles gingerly over the serene piano chords that drive the song. But like much of the rest of Release the Stars, it sounds full and confident without becoming overblown. Such melodrama is not necessarily a flaw -- it bears mentioning that Want One is my favorite Wainwright album -- but the cleaner, fresher style suits him well. It’s not the country life he wants, merely the comfort zone it represents. From the sound of things, he’s already there.