Switch: It sounds more appropriate for the holiday season , as opposed to the winter. Though there's incontrovertible proof that Wolf is long past trying to recreate the shadowy allure of his first two LPs, I gotta admit to hoping he'd bundle up in black again to at least reconcile his pop impulses with the gothic, brooding exaggerations of his youth.
For the most part, Brumalia -- which translates to "festival of the shortest day"-- does let some blustery weather in, but sonically, it's on par with Lupercalia and The Bachelor , so it's not barren trees and howling winds so much as ostentatious Christmas light fixtures in the pure, driven snow.
Whereas Lupercalia was inspired by the giddiness of a real-life romantic partnership, Wolf sidesteps straight biography to reacquaint himself with instruments, samples, and memories he literally found lying around: A long-dormant theremin seeps through the stately pulse of "Bitten", the percussion underpinning "Nemoralia" is cobbled together from news footage of London's summer riots, the words of "Jerusalem" were adapted from William Blake, while the confessional lyrics of "Trust" are straight from Wolf's diary.
Though they're as lavishly produced as his proper records, the little sonic footnotes and specificity give Brumalia a demo-level, real-time immediacy that rarely comes through despite his gregarious persona.
Problem is that it begs the question of how exactly to evaluate the positive effects of Wolf's over-sharing: Does prior knowledge of Brumalia 's themes and history somehow lessen the value of its contents without it? Fresh from the release of fifth album 'Lupercalia' the extravagant English talent has barely stopped moving, swapping his time between the studio and live commitments. Finding time to collect his thoughts, Patrick Wolf has brought together material for new EP 'Brumalia'.
Due for release on November 28th, the bulk of the new tracks were laid down in The Pool studios on Bermondsey Street and his home studio. In addition to this, Patrick Wolf has also decided to include a track written on an iPad.
Earlier this year the songwriter took off on a tour of the Florida swamplands, intending to find inspiration for new material. Taking his iPad along with him, the singer jotted down a demo which has decided to leave intact on the new EP. Named after the Roman mid-winter holiday, 'Brumalia' comes decked in an evocative sleeve. Patti Smith is a huge fan of Blake too, thus the EP artwork being dedicated to her.
Recording noises of the fires from the unfolding live footage and sampling artillery noises from the war coverage on the news. I guess its less of a traditional song and more of a little personal poem to remember the strange panic of those few days while living in central London. It definitely marks the end of my obsession with ancient Roman festival names!
The saxophone solo at the end is definitely a big tribute to X Ray Spex and in honour of one of my all time teenage idols, Poly Styerene, Rip! I finished it by a swamp, sampling the noises from the reeds and the engine noises on my ipad and then recorded piano and vocals back in London. There were so many pelicans everywhere when I finally reached an out of season Daytona Beach, and the whole place felt like some amazing ghost town at that time of year.
I guess the song is a thank you to those days in Daytona. I guess it boils down to being afraid of intimacy or privacy with someone and finding the strength to trust someone after having your heart messed about with in other relationships.
The harps on this song were played by the amazing singer and songwriter, Serafina Steer. I dusted down my accordion too for this song, I wanted it to have the old romantic feel of one of the old French chanson by Charles Trenet.
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