Folkocracy is a term often used to describe the Wainwright clan, rife with singer-songwriters. Significant members of the gang are present on this collaborative record’s final track, where Rufus Wainwright’s illustrious sisters, plus aunt Anna McGarrigle and close friend Chain Tannenbaum (playing the late Kate McGarrigle’s banjo), join him in a Scottish traditional, Wild Mountain Thyme, blending their voices with sweet mournfulness at the peak.
Raised in roots music, Wainwright – a polymath who has also written opera – wanted to return to first principles to mark his 50th year. This record-as-autobiographical-duets-party has a wide and deep guest list, from the head-scratching (Chaka Khan on Cotton-Eyed Joe? Better than it promises) to the riveting. Mid-album, Wainwright sets aside covers for one of his own old songs, Going to a Town, a beautifully sour reckoning with homophobia. Wainwright’s honeyed tenor is abetted by the lung power and authority of transgender pioneer Anohni.
The less good news is that although every pairing has juice in it – the inclusion of a Nicole Scherzinger-paired Hawaiian traditional is a great curveball – many of these songs feel like over-pretty drawing room star turns. Nothing here is slick, exactly, but much tends towards mellifluous pleasantness – even the songs about protest and murder.
