Release the Stars by Rufus Wainwright

Release the Stars, Rufus Wainwright's fifth studio album, came out on Geffen on May 15, 2007, with Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant as executive producer. Wainwright set out to make something simple, just piano and voice, and then, once the tapes were rolling, the grandeur crept in. Layer upon lush layer swells around his languid croon until the whole thing feels like an opera house with the doors flung open.

It's a family affair, too, with sister Martha Wainwright and mother Kate McGarrigle among the guests, alongside Richard Thompson, Teddy Thompson, Joan Wasser, actress Siân Phillips and Tennant himself. "Going to a Town", "Rules and Regulations" and "Tiergarten" were the singles. It became his most commercially successful album to date, charting in 13 countries, reaching the Top 10 in Denmark, Norway and the UK, and earning two Juno nominations.

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