Martha Wainwright - I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too

Between them, the Wainwright family have got a rather impressively sized back catalogue, and Martha’s second record is the latest addition. On its own merits ‘I Know You’re Married But I’ve Got Feelings Too’ is possibly the best album title of the year thus far, however this means that it has a lot to live up to in terms of content. Sadly, it doesn’t quite deliver.

Whilst there’s certainly some excellent tracks on this album there’s a couple of misfires, that whilst aren’t terrible, detract from the album as a whole and make it sound a bit meandering and whimsical. ‘Jesus and Mary’ stands out as the most obvious example of this, with Wainwright’s vocal play prancing over some electronic beats, which just don’t really fit. It’s not all like this though, and for every one of these there’s a song as good as opener ‘Bleeding All Over You’, which, with its hypnotic rhythm and subtle guitar work, gets better with every listen, gradually revealing other depths.

‘See Emily Play’ is the other main standout from an overall decent record. Covering Barrett-era Pink Floyd is not something that many acts seem to wish to try, however this take is bloody brilliant. As is ‘Comin’ Tonight’, underpinned by a country beat and is just the right side of drive-time to possibly be a hit. These two tracks showcase the two styles which Martha Wainwright does best, the first being somewhat silly and light, the second being an upbeat more poppy tune that allows her voice to be used more powerfully, when these two styles are played with the album shines, it’s only when there’s too much messing around in between does it fall down.

With an impressive cast making up the non-Martha personnel the instrumentation throughout is excellent, comprising mainly of pianos and acoustic guitars. However these are all nicely complemented by the electric guitar’s which, due to not being around constantly, have more of an impact when they are bought in. The string sections are also all well composed and arranged in the tracks, which provide interesting listening. Even an ill advised fade-out on ‘You Cheated Me’ can be forgiven as it’s followed by slightly jazzy number ‘Hearts Club Band’.

For an album that will likely occupy several coffee tables ‘I Know You’re Married…’ is a difficult album to grasp, even the record’s pop songs are subtle and take multiple listens to fully appreciate. Also, with a surprising amount going on, the album is well recorded and there’s plenty of space for everything to breathe and even the misfires on the album don’t actually sound bad. In all this isn’t a record for everyone, and nor should it be, but fans of singers such as Richard Hawley should enjoy the majority of this.