Coming from the woman whose last album contained the track 'Bloody Mother F**king Asshole', you'd have been forgiven for thinking that the title of Martha Wainwright's second album would mean more of the same bitter, caustic sentiments of her folk-based and darkly emotional debut.
Sure, disparaging remarks and traces of resentment-fuelled relationships pepper her excellent follow-up but, unlike her debut, Wainwright manages to push these into a host of different genres, and melt them over fantastic swirling melodies.
The title is immense and points towards the mischievous, poignant, desperate and optimistic sentiments which fly around 'I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too'.
Though she has recently married, her life as depicted here bares anything but stability with Wainwright crafting wonderful but despondent lyrics out of a myriad of complicated relationships. On Jimi she sings "Sometimes I feel like there is no one/ No one at all/ That life is a myth and I won't be missed/ When I'm gone", and this sense of loneliness is laced throughout the record.
Past relationships are the subject of 'The George Song', 'Bleeding All Over You' and 'You Cheated Me'; failed friendships are tackled on 'Hearts Club Band' and 'So Many Friends', while her mother's recent battle with cancer is dealt with on the Tori Amos influenced 'In The Middle Of The Night'.
But, as mentioned, such subject matter is par for the course with Wainwright and the most staggering thing about 'I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too' is the ranges of genres and musical styles she flirts with. There's much variety here and, for the most part, it's all good.
Wainwright wraps her cigarettes-and-honey voice around the theatrical ('Tower'), which evokes Kate Bush and then jumps straight into a number of pop songs, the most notable of which is the infectious 'You Cheated Me' proving she more than has what it takes to skip into the mainstream if required.
A fun and decidedly pop-infused cover of Pink Floyd's 'See Emily Play' is nice but superfluous, while she takes her career to date full circle with 'I Wish It Were'. As the album's only out and out folk-flavoured song, some fans may miss the intimate, fragile touch of her debut, which has been replaced by freer and bigger sounding commercial songs.
Ultimately though, Wainwright has taken a huge raft of records, singers and influences and twisted them into a wonderfully diverse second album, crafted with no little skill or confidence, and which excels even the work of her elder sibling, Rufus.
Steve Cummins
