Style: Dark, brooding piano ballads; compare to Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, Ben Folds
Top tracks: “Zebulon,” “Martha,” “Who Are You New York?”
On his seventh studio album, Wainwright strips away the bombast of his chamber-pop past, but what remains—a rich, expressive voice and the warm tones of a grand piano—reveals just as much complexity and drama as his previous recordings. A sparse and dark collection, All Days Are Nights finds Wainwright facing his mother’s cancer (she died soon after the recording) and his own loneliness, and exploring the darker side of love through three adaptations of Shakespearean sonnets. It’s an intimate—if sometimes busy, the songs bursting with twists, turns, and arpeggios—album of longing for solace and comfort.
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