Martha Wainwright's debut album was one of the best debut's that we've had this century; it may have been a difficult listen at times, but in many ways that made it all the more compelling. If there's one singer-songwriter out there at the moment willing to tell us what she really thinks, without filtering out too much of the interesting stuff, it's Wainwright.
I Know You're Married... is, lyrically, more of the same, but with an added commercial surety. Whether or not this is seen as a good thing depends on your point of view. Me? Well I've never seen anything wrong with wanting to sell more records. Especially when she's kept what was so great about her in the first part largely intact.
Whether it's nailing unrequited love on Bleeding All Over You, putting 911 into perspective on The Tower Songs or chronicling her mother's recent battle with cancer on In The Middle Of The Night, Wainwright is never less than a compelling narrator.
Her strengths of course will be labelled as her weaknesses by some critics, and that is fair enough. I've said before that Wainwright, like all of her family clan, is somewhat of an acquired taste. But whatever way you look at it, this album is breathtaking and is further proof that Martha may well prove to be the best Wainwright of them all.
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