Rufus Wainwright

American-born, Canadian-bred Rufus Wainwright comes from first-class singer/songwriter stock -- his dad's Loudon Wainwright III, his mom's Kate McGarrigle -- but his music has little in common with his parents' homespun folk. As his debut album demonstrates, Wainwright's talent is for making urbane pop of such sweeping drama that a Broadway stage could barely contain it. The long, convoluted melodies, fervently lovelorn lyrics, and ornate arrangements of tracks such as "Baby" and "Foolish Love" recall generations of American songwriters, from Stephen Foster to Cole Porter to Randy Newman, even as they maintain their own distinct personality.

Poses is even better. The lyrics express Wainwright's homosexuality both forthrightly and poetically ("Grey Gardens," for example, refers repeatedly to Tadzio, the young male object of desire in Thomas Mann's Death in Venice), while the music is practically drunk on its own beauty (listen to the twists and turns of the vocal harmonies on "Shadows," or the swelling chorus of the title track). And Wainwright's grainy, sorrowful voice -- think Radiohead's Thom Yorke without the existential despair -- is a marvel.

With Want One, Wainwright's claim to major artist status is cemented for good. Whether incorporating orchestral quotes from Ravel's Bolero into a bemused statement of world-weariness ("Oh What a World") or reading the line "My phone's on vibrate for you" as the most elegant expression of devotion imagina-ble ("Vibrate"), Wainwright blends whimsy and deep feeling in a way that few contemporary artists can match. (MAC RANDALL)

From 2004's The New Rolling Stone Album Guide