Lupercalia

Man to wolf and back

The cycle of human Patrick the Human’s transformation into Wolf the Beast is completed. It took several years and a number of albums, a verified testimonies to the development of the British singer’s music views. The whole story had an end different than the one the young man wanted. In the last couple of years, it was a usual thing to run across another interview where Patrick expressed his intentions to leave the native British land and never to speak to music journalists, who misinterpreted and underestimated his art. There were even updates about Wolf’s utter disappointment in music and plans to get out of the business. Then, when the ultimately gloomy and desperate album, The Bachelor, emerged, when it was clear as never before that this is the end, we saw what had to happen next. Humanization. Wolf ran nowhere, nor to a castle or the woods, or to any other country. Nor did he carry on singing about how everything had gone bad. In 2011, the British released an album called Lupercalia, revealing a side too bright to his entire past music.

Lupercalia: an album of love for a man and a city

Lupercalia is a title of an ancient festival arranged by our distant ancestors in the mid February. The whole celebration was dedicated to purity and fertility with everyone flooding the streets to clean the city. Albeit for a short while, it would look like a place ideal for life and having a family. Apparently, Patrick Wolf would like to have a holiday like that on the streets of London, the city the musicians all of a sudden fell in love with. Only the first song off Lupercalia, The City, beats an uneasy feeling to Britain’s capital. The singer reveals his fears that it can kill his love. However, the following tracks, House, and Bermondsey Street picture the city transfigured. This is where you want to come back, where your beloved waits for you, and where everything is going to be alright. Armistice, composed of exotic instruments, including a national Armenian flute, holds a very particular place on the album. Sounding completely different than anything else here, it creates an amazing warm and cozy atmosphere. Alas, only Lupercalia’s first half boasts of powerful emotional songs. As the album gets closer to its end, Wolf seems unable to offer anything new. Nevertheless, this optimistic mood that embraces the record is a great innovation by itself.

Simpler music draws more listeners

There is no doubt that the main event that had this great impact on Wolf’s creative activity was his engagement sealed shortly before he started making Lupercalia. Originally, the record was deemed as the conceptual continuation to The Bachelor. Yet later, Patrick took another look at the world, with the eyes of a man who loves, who is no longer alone and has a faith in something good. Practically all Lupercalia’s songs are to this or that extent dedicated to an unnamed beauty whose kisses and caresses are all the singer yearns for. Tracks like Time Of My Life, or Together are direct music compliments to Wolf’s loved one. Carried by this mighty wave of enthusiasm, Patrick demonstrates singing as strong as never before. On the other hand, behind all these attempts to tune himself and the audience to positive thinking, words about love and joys of human lives, one can spot a simple desire to find new listeners, to get to the right format. The stage image and eccentric deeds may remain, but Wolf’s music, certainly, moves towards simplicity and standardization. Maybe, the musician, who used to claim uniqueness and authenticity, now wants nothing more than the public interest to his production.