Sundark and Riverlight by Patrick Wolf

Sundark And Riverlight presents the strongest possible evidence of his status as not just interesting or unique or inventive, but a songwriter of the highest standing.

Sundark and Riverlight is him at his distilled best, tears in his eyes, glitter on his cheeks, tragic, magnificent, ours.

If the goal of Sundark and Riverlight was to prove Wolf's repertoire has songwriting merit beyond the layers of mythology and biography and reinventions, it's an unqualified success; on its own, every arrangement is entirely thoughtful and praiseworthy.

Wolf bleats as if he’s conducting an exorcism, and indeed this excellent compilation of old tracks revisited sound like a profound psychic cleanse.

All it really does is make you long for the originals.

A good deal of the songs on Sundark and Riverlight gain little from these revised arrangements, even losing some of Wolf’s patented eccentricities.