Patrick Wolf: The Magic Position

THE ESSENCE OF PATRICK WOLF is captured for a fleeting moment during 'Accident & Emergency'. Amidst the lolloping electronic beats, dancefloor anthemics, stereoscoping brass, and dramatis-personae vocals, there's a moment of vulnerability as he tones down the delivery from preening disco-queen to lost child for the words "what happens when you lose everything?" It's subsumed within the space of a breath though, and he returns to cocksure strength with the words "you just carry on and with a grin, sing!" — but there was just enough to catch a glimpse. Beneath the drama and colour, real human emotion; each heightens the other.