Try Harder: Patrick Wolf

Oh, Patrick Wolf, I hate what I have to say

Like, The Magic Position and everything before=brilliant. Apparently, though, you decided that everything you did would thusly inevitably be brilliant, and made a shitty half-concept album that borders on great but mostly hovers around lost potential.

What IS great on The Bachelor, though? "Hard Times". An incredible pop song, both infused with and stripped of your need to make a statement that will (read as: won't) carry on. And I hate that it has come to this, when Magic Position felt so effortless, free and off-the-cuff yet perfect. This album is a victim of "trying too hard to be important"-and yeah, the "Hard Times" video is hilariously bad, but the song? One of the best things you've done, and one of the best songs of the economically-fucked year. Shame the rest of the record can't hold up.