''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 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 of Larrikin Love as well as backing vocals by Wolf's sister Jo Apps and also bass and alto clarinet 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 Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' (G ...

-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 grou ...

and

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the " Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance music. His work with synthesizers had ...

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 Yo ...

'' 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 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 average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, 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 ''Billboard'' (stylized as ''billboard'') is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music ...

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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 ...

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 south east Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery along with Estonian kannel, Latvian kokles, Lithua ...

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 composit ...

, clavinet, 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 o ...

, bells, gongs, handclaps, locks and

keys Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (ma ...

* Victoria Sutherland – solo violin *

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

* Edward Larrikin – 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 ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

* Rozaliya Rashkova – cello

Charts

References

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