''The Magic Position'' is the third

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by English singer-songwriter

Patrick Wolf Patrick Wolf (born Patrick Denis Apps; 30 June 1983) is an English singer-songwriter from South London. Wolf uses a wide variety of instruments in his music, most commonly the ukulele, piano, and viola. He is known for combining electronic samp ...

. It was released on 26 February 2007. The album features collaborations with

Marianne Faithfull Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (born 29 December 1946) is an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her hit single " As Tears Go By" and became one of the lead female artists during the British I ...

and

Edward Larrikin Larrikin Love were an England, English four piece indie rock band from London. Consisting of singer-songwriter Edward Leeson, guitarist Micko Larkin, bassist Alfie Ambrose and drummer Coz Kerrigan, and also occasionally including violinist Rob ...

Larrikin Love Larrikin Love were an English four piece indie rock band from London. Consisting of singer-songwriter Edward Leeson, guitarist Micko Larkin, bassist Alfie Ambrose and drummer Coz Kerrigan, and also occasionally including violinist Rob Skipper f ...

as well as backing vocals by Wolf's sister Jo Apps and also bass and alto

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

instrumentation by Derek Apps. The album was preceded by the singles "Accident & Emergency" and " Bluebells". Music critics and Wolf himself have noted that this album marks a departure from the musical style of his previous two albums, with this one being more pop-oriented. He cites

Boney M Boney M. was a German- Caribbean vocal group that specialized in disco and funk created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary songwriter. Originally based in West Germany, the four original members of the group' ...

and

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance mu ...

as influences. ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' named ''The Magic Position'' the best album of 2007. As of 2009 the album has sold 20,400 copies in United Kingdom.

Critical response

''The Magic Position'' received general acclaim from music critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82, based on 27 reviews, which indicates "universal acclaim".

Track listing

# "Overture" – 4:40 # "

The Magic Position ''The Magic Position'' is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Patrick Wolf. It was released on 26 February 2007. The album features collaborations with Marianne Faithfull and Edward Larrikin of Larrikin Love as well as backin ...

" – 3:53 # "Accident & Emergency" (featuring

) – 3:17 # "The Bluebell" – 1:11 # " Bluebells" – 5:17 # "Magpie" (featuring

) – 3:57 # "X" – 1:05 # "Augustine" – 4:19 # "Secret Garden" – 1:49 # "Get Lost" – 3:17 # "Enchanted" – 2:07 # "The Stars" – 3:51 # "Finale" – 1:57 Digital download #

"The Marriage" – 2:46 UK enhanced edition #

"Bluebells" (music video) Japanese edition #

"Underworld" # "Adder" # "Ari's Song" (Misprinted as "Ali's Song") # "The Marriage" # "Accident & Emergency" (music video) # "The Magic Position" (music video) Canadian edition #

"The Childcatcher" (live) # "Luna & Libertine" (live)

Singles

* 23 October 2006: "Accident & Emergency" * 1 January 2007: " Bluebells" (download-only) * 26 March 2007: "

" * 2 July 2007: "Get Lost" Billboard.com - Discography - Patrick Wolf - Get Lost/ref>

Personnel

* Patrick Wolf – lead vocals, Bosendorfer grand piano, Kawaii Modular synths, baritone & soprano

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

mountain dulcimer The Appalachian dulcimer (many variant names; see below) is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings, originally played in the Appalachian region of the United States. The body extends the length ...

, 5- and 15-string

kantele A kantele () or kannel () is a traditional Finnish and Karelian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the south east Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery along with Estonian kannel, Latvian kokles, Lithuanian ...

clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras. Historically, it was mostly used as a practice instrument and as an aid to compositi ...

clavinet The Clavinet is an electrically amplified clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds by a rubber pad striking a point on a tension ...

, programming,

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone/etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named afte ...

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. T ...

autoharp An autoharp or chord zither is a string instrument belonging to the zither family. It uses a series of bars individually configured to mute all strings other than those needed for the intended chord. The term ''autoharp'' was once a trademark of ...

, bells, gongs, handclaps,

locks Lock(s) may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainment * ''Lock ...

and keys * Victoria Sutherland – solo violin *

– vocals on "Magpie" * Jo Apps – backing and sister vocal * Derek Apps – bass and alto

s * Katy Wright – solo

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

* Mark Rudland – trombones * Flip Phillipp –

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

and

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...

– vocals on "Accident & Emergency" * Richard Eigner – drums * Werner Dafeldecker –

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

* Jeremy Shaw, Richard Eigner, Patrick Pulsinger and Anna at Eastcote – handclaps * Andreas Kaufmann – first violin * Alexej Barer – second violin * Raphael Handschuh –

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

* Rozaliya Rashkova – cello

Charts

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Magic Position, The 2007 albums Patrick Wolf albums