10:58

oneweekoneband:

Patrick Wolf - Careless Talk (2008) [The Edge of Love Soundtrack]

‘Careless Talk’ is notable for a couple of reasons:

1) It wasn’t written by Patrick. While Patrick has covered plenty of songs he loves as b-sides, this is to my knowledge the only time he has recorded a new song written and composed entirely by someone else.

The song has found its way deep into my heart and that’s a tricky thing to do when you’ve spent a decade mainly only singing your own songs.

- Patrick Wolf, Pitchfork, April 7, 2008 (source)

2) Of course, ‘Careless Talk’ wasn’t written by just anyone.  It was written by Angelo Badalamenti. And who is Angelo Badalamenti? A composer and frequent David Lynch collaborator, responsible for the soundtracks for Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet and, most famously, Twin Peaks.

Yeah, he’s that guy.

3) ‘Careless Talk’ was written for The Edge of Love, a Dylan Thomas biopic. Its director, John Maybury, penned the lyrics. In conjunction with the soundtrack, (and given his predisposition for setting the words British poets to music) Patrick ended up participating in a Dylan Thomas tribute concert, where he ended up befriending Patti Smith and becoming an occasional member of her band.

4) The song itself. Stylistically, it’s one step further in the direction taken by The Magic Position’s ‘Enchanted’ - a jazzy big band lounge number that really lets Patrick show off his pipes while rhyming words like “jolly” and “melancholy.” Over the course of his first three albums, Patrick’s voice has grown into a confident, well-supported baritone. Given the spacious arrangement and languid pace (at least relative to the average Patrick Wolf composition) he takes the opportunity to play with his vocals, occasionally twisting his words into something resembling an American accent (i.e. the word ‘together’).

It’s a light number, but not everything needs to be fraught with symbolism and drama, and the constraints of a film soundtrack seem to have reined Patrick in a bit - compare to the slightly more intense version he performed for ZeitOnline.