Like John Mayer, Rufus Wainwright released a “comeback” album this year inspired by pop songwriters of the 1970s. In Wainwright’s case, the influences are more Elton John and David Bowie than Neil Young and Joni Mitchell — more glam-rock than folk-rock.
And Wainwright isn’t coming back from a creative slump but a personal one: the death of his mother in 2010, shortly after the release of his sixth studio album, All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu. That record was written while she was hospitalized, with several songs referencing her impending demise, and it’s a stark, sometimes difficult listen.
By contrast, Out of the Game is a decidedly poppy, upbeat album, though it too contains several mentions of his late mother. Wainwright, who recently fathered a daughter and settled in Montauk, New York, with his partner, has released his most mature and consistent album to date (though I still rank Want One as his finest achievement).
On Out of the Game, Wainwright partnered with hip English producer Mark Ronson, the man who helped craft the sound of Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse and Adele. The result is a more radio-friendly groove that still leaves room for the strings, horns and theatrical backing vocals that have shown up in most of Wainwright’s work.
I don’t think Wainwright is capable of writing a bad song, and he delivers several beauties here. Among my favorites are the yearning, soaring ‘Jericho,’ the laid-back torch ballad ‘Respectable Dive’ (with the lovely touch of what sounds like a Hawaiian guitar), and the ‘Billie Jean’-esque ‘Perfect Man,’ on which Wainwright shows off his lower register.
In ‘Montauk,’ he asks his toddler daughter to promise that she’ll visit her two dads when she’s older and not be embarrassed by their goofball domesticity. The songs takes a poignant turn when he reminisces about his own late mother’s time at a similar beach house.
On today’s SOTD, the album’s title track, Wainwright looks back with a chuckle, and a little bit of envy, at the young men about to make all the same mistakes he did.
I’ve been out for a long time now
I’m lookin’ for something
Can’t be found on the main drag, no
I’m out of the game
I’ve been out for a long time now
I’m looking for something
Can’t be found on the main drag no,
Look at you, look at you, look at you, look at you, suckers!
Does your mama know what you’re doin’?
Look at you, look at you, look at you, look at you, suckers!
Does your mama know what you’re doin’?
You’re only a child
With the mind of a senile man
You’re only a young thing,
’Bout to sleep with a sea of men
Just hangin’ around,
Wearin’ somethin’ from God knows where.
Just havin’ a ball
Makin’ all of the thin cards fall.
Look at you, look at you, look at you, look at you suckers!
Does your mama know what you’re doin’?
Look at you, look at you, look at you, look at you suckers!
Does your mama know what you’re doin’?
Say, come over here,
Let me smell you for one last time
Before you go out there
And ruin all of the world, once mine.
I’m out of the game
I’ve been out for a long time now
I’m lookin’ for something
That can’t be found on the main drag, no
Look at you, look at you, look at you, look at you, suckers!
Does your mama know what you’re doin’?
Look at you, look at you, look at you, look at you, suckers!
Does your mama know, what you’re doin’?
Meet Me In Montauk 
I”ve heard today’s song many times on the adult alternative radio station. It’s a good one, and clearly his most commercially accessible work to date. I am eager to give the rest of the album my attention (though Amy can’t be in the room:))