Want Two is the followup to Rufus Wainwright's third LP, Want One, and though both were recorded in the same sessions, the two records sound quite different from each other. It is, however, the logical next step in his artistic progression as he moves further from his earlier indie/pop work and steps into a unique realm all his own. Indeed, the covers to the Want albums play off Wainwright's musical fantasies, featuring Rufus as a Arthurian knight and brunette damsel, respectively.

Where Wainwright began to explore his musical imagination in Want One with lush arrangements of string, brass and choral backgrounds to his usual piano, he departs from One's pop feel found in tracks like "Beautiful Child" and "I Don't Know What It Is" and follows his ever-changing muse into a record of soul-searching art songs, artistic experimentation, and religious overtones.

Want Two begins with a wailing Rufus intoning his private version of the "Angus Dei", and signals immediately that this is not a typical album, even for Wainwright's standards. In the opening track he repeats the age-old latin scripture, asking forgiveness of his sins and for peace before he continues with an album that encompasses very personal feelings of loneliness, sexuality and religion.

Wainwright's subject matter in this effort is intensely personal, and in tracks like "This Love Affair", "Memphis Skyline" and "The Art Teacher" his own memories become indistinguishable from his fantasies. "Gay Messiah" is certainly a response to his newfound status as a gay icon in a society coming to terms with homosexuality in the mainstream. Rufus' unique musical stylings also move further from his past work, most notably in the aria and recit feel of "Little Sister", the cyclic "Old Whore's Diet" and the Philip Glass-like piano of "The Art Teacher".

The album as a whole is significant departure from his his earlier self-titled work and Poses, but there are traces of Want One in this followup, specifically with the fast-paced "The One You Love", and the entire record is tied together with Rufus' trademark soaring vocals and lyric sensibilities. Two is not as widely accessible as its predecessors, but after a number of listens through it is hard not to fall in love with this strange, breathtaking work.

(I absolutely could have done without the guest vocals on "Old Whore's Diet", which render the last track almost un-listenable, but that's truly the only major blemish on this record).