Patrick Wolf – The Bachelor

He. Has been making the headlines recently for all the wrong reasons. He.Be it declaring he was quitting music after the release of 2007’s The Magic Position, falling out with the major label world or having established music journalists fawn over him these have been interesting times for Patrick Wolf. Originally intended as a double album entitled Battle, The Bachelor is what would have been the first disc of everyones favourite hyper reality techno-bohemian’s latest opus. Having left Universal, Wolf turned to his fans to finance the record, via the Bandstocks website. As with The Magic Position, he has roped in some well known friends too, with Eliza Carthy, Alec Empire and Tilda Swinton all making an appearance.Since his arrival as a mysterious violin wielding street urchin on Lycanthropy though to his glam master of ceremonies on The Magic Position Wolf has long been looked up to by many, particularly those who identify with his tales of rootlessness and isolation, of not quite fitting in. As his records have progressed, Wolf has become more confident and more confrontational. Even the artwork seems to suggest this, Wolf appearing like a cyborg knight on the front cover. With The Bachelor Wolf seems to be moving in a positive direction, a mile away from the borderline nihilism that marked his earlier records. Indeed, this album seems to be a call to arms for the disenfranchised, littered as it is with calls to “Rise Up! Rise Up!”, “seize the day”, and to “battle for civil liberty...battle the homophobes”. There are also reassurances that "This is our time", and throughout the record Tilda Swinton appears to offer words of encouragement and tough love, assuring Wolf “You’ll be home soon” and “The future is yours” like some kind of Princess Leah/ Mother Earth figure in Wolf’s fantastical techno-countryside.'Oblivion' starts with stuttering beats and Swinton saying "I Fear you, but I’m not afraid of you". Supposedly a tale of a man going it on his own, set to a pumping beat, it comes off as overblown, the spoken word interludes calling to mind Flight of the Conchords’ failed take on a Lord Of The Rings theme tune. The churning violins of the title track follows, Wolf’s distinctive, mannered and emotional vocal complimented by Eliza Carthy’s gritty co-vocal. It is an album highlight, and is rather let down by the fact that Wolf follows it with the hugely overblown 'Damaris', in which he goes down for the whole Celtic whistle, panpipes, strings and choir route. The Celtic device is one that Wolf returns to on 'Thickets', and it fails to impress there too. Perhaps it is just the slick production here, but it seems rather reminiscent of a rainy saturday afternoon in front of a shopping centre rather than the grit of Celtic traditions. It is pretty enough, but as happens too often on The Bachelor, it doesn’t really go anywhere. 'Who Will' feels similarly aimless, slowly building on electronic burbles and a skittering beat before being bludgeoned with a needless choir and OTT bombast.The undoubted highlight of the record comes in the form of 'Count of Casualty' which grows from an electric burble and a delicate keyboard melody. Seemingly a challenge to the generation that spend their lives tied to the computer or mobile, the twitterers and facebook users of this world, Wolf intones “I dare you-log off-sign out-delete your friends. WAKE UP!” against the backdrop of a choir, glitchy electronics and abrasive, pounding beats; like an aural assault, it’s a real wake up call. I believe the phrase is “It’s a Banger”. 'Vulture', Wolf’s collaboration with Alec Empire of Atari Teenage Riot follows a similar vein but is a decidedly more ‘pop’ affair, lacking the pulverizing beats that one might hope for in such a meeting of minds, seemingly preferring to use Neuman-esque keyboards instead. It all comes off like a collision between Depeche Mode and Peaches (I swear there’s a little bit of “The Teaches of Peaches” in their somewhere). 'Battle' is a full on chugging pop metal stomper, and finds Wolf in full rabble rousing mode, calling the listener out to rise up and do battle against the wrongs of the world. Having declared “VICTORY!” he even lets loose with a full on Matt Bellamy yowl at the songs end.There are a couple of moments on The Bachelor where Patrick Wolf gives a glimpse of the true talent that lurks behind the image he has constructed for himself. When he gets it right, as on 'Count of Casualty' it can take the breath away. An over reliance on recurring motifs (the over use of the choir and the Tilda Swinton spoken word passages) lets the record down badly however. It’s grandiose and ambitious but the sense of intimacy that was so marked on Lycanthropy and Wind in the Wires seems to have been replaced with melodrama and self mythology. 71%Patrick Wolf on Myspace