Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright was born in New York in 1973 to musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle. After his parents separated, he and his sister Martha grew up with their mother in Montreal. His debut was recorded in Los Angeles and produced by Jon Brion, whose work with Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann and film soundtracks provides a useful clue to the record’s richly detailed world.

Wainwright’s influences extend from Stephen Foster and Brian Wilson to the composers of Tin Pan Alley, and onwards to Verdi, Wagner and Bizet. His songs have the poise of standards, while their worldview and harmonic thinking reflect a gay songwriter of the alternative-rock generation—something like that era’s Cole Porter.

The grand pop-opera worlds of Want One and Want Two would develop these ideas further. Here, the unusual combination of classical breadth, popular-song craftsmanship and personal perspective is already compelling.