''The Magic Position'' is the third

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

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 (29 December 1946 – 30 January 2025) was an English singer and actress who achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her UK top 10 single " As Tears Go By". She became one of the leading female art ...

and Edward Larrikin of Larrikin Love as well as backing vocals by Wolf's sister Jo Apps and also bass and alto

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

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. is a German reggae, funk and disco music group founded in 1974. It achieved popularity during the disco era in the second half of the 1970s. The band was created by German record producer Frank Farian, who was the group's primary song ...

and

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

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 Yor ...

'' 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 an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, 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" – 3:53 # "Accident & Emergency" (featuring Edward Larrikin) – 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: " The Magic Position" * 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 ( ; ); also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancient guitar) family of instruments. The ukulele is of Portuguese origin and was popularized in Hawaii. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and con ...

s, mountain dulcimer, 5- and 15-string

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

clavichord The clavichord is a stringed rectangular keyboard instrument that was used largely in the Late Middle Ages, through the Renaissance music, Renaissance, Baroque music, Baroque and Classical period (music), Classical eras. Historically, it was most ...

clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respond ...

, 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 aft ...

harmonium The pump organ or reed organ is a type of organ that uses free reeds to generate sound, with air passing over vibrating thin metal strips mounted in a frame. Types include the pressure-based harmonium, the suction reed organ (which employs a va ...

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 t ...

, bells, gongs, handclaps, locks 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 violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

* Mark Rudland – trombones * Flip Phillipp –

vibraphone The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...

and

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

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

double bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

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

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

* Rozaliya Rashkova – cello

Charts

References

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