Music Banter - Patrick Wolf : The Magic Position

Patrick Wolf "The Magic Position" by Ethan Smith

This album was essentially Patrick Wolf’s breakthrough album. It sent him from unheard of British singer/songwriter to indies next big deal (with a good deal of help from pitchfork.) Now naturally there was a backlash from old fans over this release because of the content of it. While Patrick Wolf has changed from album to album no one expected him to jump from the dark orchestrated folk sound of Wind in the Wires to a more straight-forward pop album, but he did.
Now this album Patrick Wolf stated was more about making other people happy than making himself happy. It certainly shows right from the opening track a more upbeat sound. Citing his influences on this album as disco group Boney M and Giorgio Moroder. Patrick Wolf jumped into the world of pop music though he did so much differently then your average artists switching styles. The Magic Position is just as full sounding as his previous release, if not more so. Featuring a wider variety of instruments then before and a wider variety of people. It still holds songs like Augustine, which could’ve fit easily on Wind in the Wires and the violins are still there, but tracks like Accident & Emergency aren’t like anything you would’ve found on early releases.

The Magic Position may sound like a super happy album but it does have its darker moments, the album deals with love. Patrick Wolf was inspired by this, by his relationship with a painter. In the start its a simple accepting yourself to asking do you want me? Hopeful, yet slightly sad and scared. To the joy and infatuation and sex and to the insecurity of wondering whether or not this will last and then finally the album nearly closes with the Stars, a simple reflection. "I lifted my face to the night sky and for the first time in months, I saw the stars. You know when you’ve been so busy, just keeping your eyes fixed on the road in front of you and suddenly it stops?" and then finally it closes with Finale, which is riddled with subliminal messages according to Mr. Wolf.

This is such an amazing record because it captures many moods all along one theme and manages to go through so many moods so easily. You don’t really notice how it dips quickly into despair but you feel it when it does. The Magic Position reminds you that love is happy and worth giving, but it still lets you know that romance isn’t all sex and rainbows.