Patrick Wolf

Patrick Wolf begins his latest record with an overture. He did the same with his pop breakout and last release, The Magic Position. (On it, the lead track is titled “Overture.”) It’s a significant move for the British singer-songwriter as he constructs his own modern, hyperdramatic rock symphonies.

Wolf can be almost comically emotive, as in a title cut with a vocal exchange fit for a staged rendition of a Genesis tune. Earlier and throughout, Wolf’s low, sad croon evokes Robert Smith. On the Dickensian tip of the hat, “Hard Times,” Wolf emerges through a cloud of electronics and cascading string sections to deliver a simultaneously heartbreaking and stirring summation of the present day’s travails. In the process, he introduces a new genre: inspirational goth.

The Bachelor is the first disc of a double album, the first movement in a two-part symphony. (Its complement, The Conqueror, is due next year.) The record doesn’t feel like half of anything, though. It’s a complete look at loneliness and love, calling upon Wolf’s nearly endless talents: He plays the organ, harp, violin, accordion and many other instruments, piping it all through complicated electronic streams. Some of the largest moments come on the biblical “Damaris,” where toward the end a choir chants “rise up” and Wolf joins in. A call to the afterlife, the chorus aptly describes his sagas; they move just like heaven.—Colin St. John

Patrick Wolf plays the Highline Ballroom June 23.

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