But when you open up to me

"The City". The first single from Patrick Wolf's Lupercalia. It, unlike pretty much any other first single from a P-Wolf record to date, doesn't yield at first poke. Wolfie? In a car? Kissing a shopgirl from Forever 21 ? What the fuck is this, from the dude whose name is Tristian and all that? First time I heard this, I pounded my fists on the table shrieking "what about THE MAGIC POSITION? LEFT RIGHT, PATRICK, LEFT RIGHT?" 

The E Street Band sax on Gaga's "Edge of Glory" brought me back to this song, though, which borrows even more heavily from the Boss's just-fucking-run-into-the-summer ethos. And now that winter's taken her coat off and it's actually possible to sweat from just stepping outside, "The City" makes sense. "The City" is Patrick running into the adolescence that he lost to "A Boy Like Me". "The City" is reckless abandon, unconcerned with the perception of others.

I
Won't let the city destroy our love
Won't let the city destroy my love
Won't let no mistake take the roof from off our heads
No I
Won't let this city destroy us
Won't let the city destroy our love  

It's a battle cry for optimisim, for boundless youth. A "there, there" for those (of us) who grew up too dark, too fucked, too jaded to ever believe that a car and a girl and a porch swing could save us. But, hell, if Patrick Wolf is casting himself as the pied piper of a new glass-is-half-full movement? I just might be able to believe in that.