Patrick Wolf released his new album Lupercalia in June this year. Adamant that The Bachelor was perhaps Wolf’s best record to date, Lupercalia had a lot to live up to in terms of the 28-year-old’s song writing abilities.
As a follow up to The Bachelor, Lupercalia didn’t disappoint. It was built on a swirl of beautiful melodies driving a highly romantic record, destined for your hearts from very beginning. Check out review of Lupercalia here.
Wolf’s brand new Brumalia EP looks all-but-set to continue where Lupercalia left off. Offering yet more of Wolf’s heartfelt trademark sound and style, the EP was written over the past year, recorded, produced and programmed by Wolf himself in London during the autumn months.
Brumalia, which shares its name with a Roman winter festival celebration, is a fitting title for such a well crafted piece of work. A seven track release, Brumalia will certainly capture the minds of Patrick Wolf fans globally as we head into the heart of winter – focusing on a range of issues including the recent London riots.
‘BRUMALIA’ – TRACK LISTING:
1. ‘Bitten’
2. ‘Together’
3. ‘This Time Of Year’
4. ‘Jerusalem’
5. ‘Nemoralia’
6. ‘Pelicans’
7. ‘Trust’
The EP opens with the strong, thought-provoking Bitten, written about an addiction to sex, love and drugs. It wastes no time in beginning the emotional journey the EP entails, leading in to Together – a track that featured on Wolf’s latest album – acting as a the EP’s core that everything seems to stem from quite beautifully.
As potentially our favourite track from the EP, This Time Of Year showcases more of Wolf’s intelligent emotional twists and turns that we’ve all become so familiar with over recent records. A Christmas song with a great deal of meaning, This Time Of Year, whilst euphoric, explores the emotional closeness we as human beings seek – combining that with clever war imagery – emphasised further by the line ‘what frankincense or myrhh do they seek, for to send our soldiers to those burning sands?’, serving as a thought provoking question looking for answers.
Brumalia continues the emotional journey, offering a deep insight into more recent and pressing matters closer to home. Jerusalem – a cover adaptation of a William Blake poem – provides the EP with more of Wolf’s resounding elegance, whilst Nemoralia explores the nights of the London riots, blending noises recorded from live footage as the riots unfolded with slices of war-related samples from news features. It offers a damning insight into the problems, obstructions, destruction and realities that many people faced during the scenes nationwide – a personal account of such disastrous scenes.
Closing the EP with Trust, the evident personal touch is again rife focusing on trust issues as the title suggests. With a beautiful harp arrangement and an old, romantic feel, the track is the perfect way to close such a stunning collection of stories, thoughts and emotions – reading almost like a personal diary from start to finish.
EP RATING:
9/10
STAND OUT TRACK(S):
‘Together’, ‘This Time Of Year’, ‘Nemoralia’, ‘Trust’
Patrick Wolf releases his new Brumalia EP on December 4th. His new album, Lupercalia, is out now and available to download via iTunes.
Watch Wolf perform his recent single Time Of My Life live at the Pool Studios: