Poses, Rufus Wainwright's second album, is a modest work in comparison with his self-titled 1998 debut. For all its baroque qualities, particularly Van Dyke Parks' arrangements that made Pet Sounds sound like a tossed-off exercise, his first album was an instant favourite for those attuned to its uniquely knowing romanticism. Poses seems to present a Wainwright less interested in showing off. Along with that self-effacement, unfortunately, comes an occasionally dulled sense of melody, with the ironic result that the new disc's stripped-down approach isn't likely to add many new fans to the club. The magic isn't gone, but it is attenuated; Propellerheads' Alex Gifford's meld of strings and beat-boxing on the one track he produced, "Shadows," ends up more of a diversion than a fully engaging trek off Wainwright's previous path. Poses is a not-bad album with some nice touches (a cover of dad Loudon III's "One Man Guy", the mocking of his own decadence on "California"), but its competence hardly reflects Rufus Wainwright's full measure of style and substance. --Rickey Wright