Poses by Rufus Wainwright

Poses, Rufus Wainwright's second album, arrived on DreamWorks in June 2001, and it's the sound of an opera-drunk piano man deciding he'd quite like to be on the radio, thank you. He wrote most of it during a six-month stay at the Chelsea Hotel, spent a year and a half recording it, and let Pierre Marchand steer most of the sessions, with Ethan Johns, Greg Wells, Damian LeGassick and Propellerheads' Alex Gifford each taking a track.

The arrangements are still lush and ornate, but drum loops and grimy beats sneak in under the piano, and the songs tackle love and late-night excess more plainly than before; "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" sets the tone, lush and wry. Sister Martha Wainwright, Teddy Thompson and Melissa Auf der Maur drop by, and he covers his father Loudon Wainwright III's "One Man Guy". It won a Juno for Best Alternative Album and a GLAAD Media Award, and Mojo later named it a modern classic.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.