MUSIC REVIEW

Rufus Wainwright
Release the Stars

Release the Stars - Geffen Records The Shrek soundtrack was where I, and most of the rest of the world, first heard Rufus Wainwright, playing his version of "Hallelujah." (Seeing the movie the first time at the Bell Tower with my daughter, I was stunned that a kid's flick had incorporated a Leonard Cohen song. And as a parent, relieved it wasn't "Chelsea Hotel.")

Release the Stars, Wainwright's fifth album, is his most personal record to date. The tune that starts the record off, "Do I Disappoint You (I'm Just Being Human)," has a bit of a Brian Wilson Smile-era production quality to it. It seems that every thing from the timpani to the piccolo was used in this opening number. Like his other records, Release the Stars feels like it might be a original cast recording of a Broadway show that was never written or performed. Wainwright's timeless pop records, including this one, are more like Randy Newman or Harry Nilsson records than anything contemporary. But Wainwright is not living in the past. He is carrying that piano-singer/songwriter torch high, and into this century.