Rufus Wainwright (album) - Critical Reception

Critical Reception

Overall, reception of the album was positive. Speaking of second-generation artists emerging around the same time, Allmusic's Jason Ankeny wrote that Wainwright "deserves to be heard regardless of his family tree". Furthermore, Ankeny complimented the musician for his songwriting abilities and his "knack for elegantly rolling piano melodies and poignantly romantic lyrics". Music journalist Robert Christgau characterized Wainwright as a "mind-boggling original" whose talent is "too big to let pass". One NME reviewer called the album "floridly impersonal and "grandiosely arranged", but also criticized Wainwright for being "too overwrought and naff". Greenwald complimented Martha's backing vocals in the song "In My Arms", as well as Parks' "positively sterling" string arrangement in "Millbrook". Furthermore, he praised the vocal duet between Rufus and Martha in "Sally Ann", claiming that a similar sibling performance had not been heard since The Everly Brothers. The album's cabaret elements and 1970s singer-songwriter style drew comparisons to Cole Porter and Joni Mitchell. Josh Kun of Salon.com wrote that Wainwright poetically incorporated "foolish love and fantasy love, healing love and destructive love and love that makes you want to lose your sense of self just so you can find it again." Kun asserted that the songs were "built on a similar set of angled melodies and hairpin turns of phrase", and that each "succeeds as its own distinctly intimate portrait of emotion and desire".

Ann Powers, music critic for The New York Times, included the album at number five on her list of the Top 10 albums of 1998. The album was also included in The Village Voice's 1998 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll, which combined ballots from 496 critics. Rufus Wainwright was nominated four times by the Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards, an organization that provided the foundation for the recognition of the excellence of LGBT artists. Wainwright received the award for Best New Artist, the album was nominated for Album of the Year, and "April Fools" was nominated for Video of the Year and Best Pop Recording. The GLAAD Media Awards, created by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) to recognize and honor the mainstream media for their fair and accurate representations of the LGBT community, presented Wainwright with the award for Outstanding Music Album. At the Juno Awards of 1999, Rufus Wainwright earned Wainwright the Juno Award for Best Alternative Album.