Search - Martha Wainwright :: I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too

It showcases Martha's musical maturity, vocal range and tale

South End | 06/10/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Martha Wainwright, Loudon III's lass proves herself a serious songwriter and performer and that she really has the range on her lovely second album.

Don't just read trauma into the title - there's breezy wit and raw self-knowledge in there, too.

Not since fellow Canadian Alanis Morissette's album Jagged Little Pill have we been so confronted with a female singer-songwriter with so much to confess.

Granted Martha Wainwright doesn't wail with quite as much angst as Morissette but she has her own distinctly histrionic way of venting her spleen.

The disc's 13 songs exhibit rampant growth in all directions, from the subtlety and originality of the arrangements, to the quality of the words and melodies. She hauls the listener through reflections on departed friends, lost lovers, and her mother's brush with cancer. The jangling chorus in "You Cheated Me" gets a leg up from Pete Townshend's guitar, while the mysterious love song, "Niger River", was inspired by her new husband (and co-producer) Brad Albetta.

Whether trashing her father Loudon Wainwright III and his well-documented parental misgivings or her various former lovers, she evidently doesn't struggle to articulate her feelings in song.

And despite the success of her self-titled 2005 debut album she hasn't run out of disgruntled subject matter to write about. The title alone should give you a pretty good idea of the shape of things to come with this new album.

It opens with the charmingly titled "Bleeding All Over You" and with a jaunty guitar part, as the singer feels her way out of the cave of infatuation.

Then the song intensifies as she recounts meetings with a man whose relationship takes on more weight with each verse. A marriage, a farmhouse, children. But the singer feels her "heart was made for bleeding all over you". She has learned to balance the intensity of her emotion with subtler melodies and gentler arrangements. This is a woman in a coffee shop singing the ache, not a mascara-soaked barfly.

Full of catharsis and dark humour her voice swoops and falls like a husky Kate Bush as she sings, "You've got a girlfriend, and I can only talk about her for so long".

She references "the booze and the smoke and the dope", but intoxication is now recollected in relative tranquillity, allowing the listener to follow her into personal psychological rooms without the awkward feeling that you're taking advantage.

While she continues to analyse and objectify those around her, this time around she also takes a deeper look within side herself. Like her brother Rufus she has a natural aptitude for melodrama and this album facilitates it far more than her debut.

The production has been substantially upsized with the strings and some epic rock dynamics. Poor old Loudon doesn't get away with it entirely here though.

Album highlight "Jimi" finds her earning the words "Sometimes I feel like my dad, for leaving her sad and alone". It is an album full of cathartic exorcism but the lavish production and arrangements set out by her husband Brad Albetta and fellow producers Martin Terefe and Tore Johansson, along with her wonderful wandering voice, do save it from being overly warring or exhausting.

As the daughter of Loudon and his folk-singing wife Kate McGarrigle, and sister of the glittering Rufus, Martha has grown up immersed in her family's psychodramas.

But compare to other members of her family, Martha might well have the broadest commercial appeal.

There are pretty guitar pickings, scrawling rock numbers and a skippy, trippy Sixties sound on her cover of Syd Barrett's "See Emily Play", which is a welcome lighter contrast to the shadier moments.

There's true love to balance the hurt and anger, and lovely, rich, grown-up songs you'll be delighted you invited home.

Be it the pseudo chanteuse of "The Tower Song" or the beautifully constructed and controlled power balladry of "Hearts Club Band", she really does come into her own, clear of the shadow of her brother Rufus and dad.

The quirky voice is now impressive and vibrant, slipping and sliding through "In The Middle Of The Night".

"My" best tracks: : "Bleeding All Over You", "Jimi", "Jesus And Mary" and "In The Middle Of The Night".



Martha Wainwright"

A little more daring than the debut

Daniel Maltzman | Arlington, MA, USA | 07/26/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"4.5 Stars



Three years after releasing her stunning self-titled debut (2005) Martha Wainwright is back with her second full length album "I Know You're Married but I've Got Feelings Too" (2008). Wainwright's new album can been seen as a cousin of the self-tiled album as the new CD sees Wainwright exploring new ground, while all the components of the debut are still in place; folk-rock ballads about #!@hole boyfriends, unrequited love, loneliness, etc. And while maybe not quite as memorable as the first album, "I Know You're Married but I've Got Feelings Too" is still a great CD that fans of the debut will enjoy.



Unrequited love never sounded so bittersweet with the opening sleepy, melancholy "Bleeding all over you," in which Wainwright proclaim "my heart was made to bleed all over you, and I l know you're married but I've got feelings too." Beautifully poignant, this is one of Wainwright's strongest compositions to date.



The infectious, almost rock-a-billy "You cheated me" would probably get some airplay if used as a single. The interplay of subtle guitars and haunting synths in "Jesus and Mary" work together splendidly. The straight-forward "Comin' Tonight" moves the album along nicely, whose out of the ordinary effects make the track stand out. The strange but cool "Tower Song" is just plain out-there--sounding like a cross between Bjork and John Cale, and will no doubt stand out for most listeners. "Hearts Club Band" sort of meanders along, but grabs hold of you all the way through. "So Many Friends" and "Middle of the Night" are both quite downhearted and low-key, the former bemoaning the loss of people once dear to us and the latter (presumably) lamenting a relationship gone sour.



The Country-esque "The George Song" has kind of an interesting trippy chorus that comes out of nowhere. "Niger River" is soft and smooth and one can just get lost in its beauty. "Jimi" starts out rather mellow before getting surprisingly rocking. A cover of Pink Floyd's "See Emily Play" adds a touch of 60s psychedelia to the album. "I wish I Were" another lonesome balled, is also quite strong. It's ending, a sort of distraught Wainwright moaning gently over the soft cry of a guitar, is particularly moving.



Oddly enough, despite how melancholy the album is overall, it ends on an upbeat note with a cover the Eurythmics "Love is a Stranger." While a good song, it seems out-of-place to end the CD on this note. It probably would have been best to end the album with "I wish I Were" instead.



While "I Know You're Married but I've Got Feelings Too" may not be quite as good as the debut (which is one of my all-time favorite albums) it's still a very, very, very good album. A little more daring than the debut, encompassing a lot of the same themes, "I Know You're Married but I've Got Feelings Too" is an album fans of Martha Wainwright's debut will surely love.



"

Surprisingly good

Lovblad | Geneva, Switzerland | 07/20/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Because of her family credentials, I had allwaays been somewhat worried about how her musical output would be (the daughter of Loudon Wainwright and McGarrigle...). The presence of Pete Townshend on guitar made me decide to make the plunge (as the price!) and I was most pleasantly surprised by the overall high quality of this record which is not as wrteched as some others have written. If you are familiar with his playing you will also eb able to quite well pick out Townshend's guitar playing. So, once again, I have been provne wrong and this is quite a good purchase."