The Magic Position
- Patrick Wolf
- Band Name: Patrick Wolf
- Record Label: Universal
- Release Date: May 1, 2007
- Critic Score
- Most active
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100Akin to Bowie's 'Hunky Dory', in its senseless but brilliant eclecticism.
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100A wild and beautiful ride.
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The Magic Position is a euphoric listening experience not even being a critic can spoil.
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90For anyone who has enjoyed even the briefest of flirtations with pop music, The Magic Position is as bold and captivating a record as you will surely hear all year.
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83These tracks... show an entirely new side of Wolf: one that finally puts impeccable pop songcraft ahead of lachrymose keening.
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82Fey, agonized chamber pop at its most tortuously fetching. [#25, p.90]
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If you were looking for a new Bowie, Patrick Wolf is proving himself the Thin White Duke's successor in more than just his extravagant dress sense.
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80Even at his laziest, Wolf sounds vastly more intelligent, committed and interesting than his supposed rivals, and "The Magic Position" is full of heart, warmth and beauty.
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The only missteps are when he tries to conjure the more dour sensibilities of his older works.... But they're tiny mistakes on an otherwise irrepressible and delightfully inventive pop album. [#17, p.88]
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It's easy to overlook a few fizzles in an album stuffed with fireworks.
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80A lot of artists are creatively bankrupt by their third album. But being still only 23, you suspect Patrick Wolf is just coming into his own. [Mar 2007, p.99]
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80The third outstanding album of his career. [Mar 2007, p.103]
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80His best full-length. [May 2007, p.98]
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80Worth investigating. [Mar 2007, p.115]
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80A true work of genius by a true eccentric.
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80Ranging from dense electronica to stark piano ballads to an amalgamation of indie pop, electronica, and concert orchestra, The Magic Position envisions a magical world where Wolf has everything he could ever want at his disposal.
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80Rarely has spilling one's heart been such a colorful affair.
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80But so what if The Magic Position ends up creaking slightly under the weight of its own ambition – surely that's better than settling for the norm?
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78While there aren't any downright bad tracks on The Magic Position, it does have several places where it seems to lose a bit of focus before honing back in on things again.
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The Magic Position loses a little focus near the end, but flashes of inspired lunacy like the jarring arrival of a spectral Marianne Faithfull on the spooky "Magpie" help to make this unpredictable collection of Victorian-peaked electro/folk-pop so hard to dislike.
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Wolf's joy is contagious, and there's nothing remotely not awesome about him. [22 Mar 2007, p.80]
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Complex yet catchy, lush yet groomed, and organically digital, The Magic Position is how pop radio must sound to the brutally insane. [May 2007, p.63]
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60Wolf sometimes succeeds in emulating Kate Bush's knack for combining the utterly bizarre with godlike musicianship, but sometimes he falls short.
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60The songs are about love and sex, but a hint of nihilism still lingers in Wolf's melodramatic vibrato. [May 2007, p.91]
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60The Magic Position sounds laboured by the end. However, it's difficult not to respond to such delirious joie de vivre.
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Detractors will complain that there's nothing to rival the brutal impact of his earlier recordings, but only towards the end does the new-found positivism grate.
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The Magic Position feel[s] more like a missed opportunity than a legitimate breakthrough album.
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User score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 21
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Mixed: 2 out of 21
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Negative: 3 out of 21
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seand7
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PWolf0I'm sorry I made such a **** record
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NikkiG10Fun when it wants to be... yet convincingly serious when it wants to be as well. Very enjoyable to listen to!