It’s been nearly ten years and five albums since Rufus Wainwright emerged as a singer-songwriter to be taken so very very seriously (“don’t take anything I do seriously” he says tonight, “just love me for my body… but no, you’ve gotta love my mind haven’t you?”).

And looking back, we can draw one conclusion: that 2001’s Poses is his best album. He performed three songs from it tonight, the title track, ‘Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk’, and ‘The Consort’, a song so moving as to put one’s heart in danger of jumping out one’s mouth.

The quality of these songs, and other old ones like ‘Danny Boy’, serve to reinforce the fact that Release The Stars just isn’t up to his usual standard. It’s all relative of course, and it’s probably the best album released by anyone this year, but given who we are dealing with it is disappointing.

‘Tiergarten’ and ‘Ready For Love’ were, dare I say it, boring in comparison to the Poses and Want material, ‘Nobody’s Off The Hook’ being another example of resting on his laurels, and even ‘Going To A Town’ lacks the poetry and naked self-examination that made his first four records so astounding. Granted, the title track, ‘Slideshow’ and ‘Between My Legs’ are marvellous pop tunes, but the rest sit ill against his older songs. That latest album is Rufus working at about 70 per cent.

Despite all that, this performance was nothing if not coherent. Basically the same show he has been touring all year (including the tribute to Judy Garland, ‘Get Happy’, adorned with stockings and heels), his voice was in the finest fettle it has been in a while, and when Rufus sings well, he is peerless beyond belief.

Whatever he played, everyone was going to adore him, and we are right to, even if the songs themselves are those where he doesn’t challenge himself. The excruciating bump back down to real life after a Rufus Wainwright concert is more painful than with any other artist.

Barnaby Smith