Mascagni's opera L'amico Fritz.Pitchforks Joe Tangari complimented the title track, stating that it "stands as one of Wainwright's finest songs, with an aching melody and Spartan piano backing." The song is semi-autobiographical, mirroring Wainwright's struggles with addiction and desire for fame ("I did go from wanting to be someone/Now I'm drunk and wearing flip-flops on Fifth Avenue"). Coated with thickly layered vocal harmonies, "Shadows" was co-written and produced by Propellerheads' Alex Gifford. Rolling Stone said the following of the track: "['Shadows'] keeps a dry funk drumbeat, a dab of piano chords, some low clarinet lines and, finally, a swarm of seraphic, multitracked voices; it's one of the many songs on the album that build up to moments of cinematic perfection, in which your goose bumps are exactly the ones Wainwright intended." The programmed beats on "The Tower of Learning" were contributed by contemporary composer Damien LeGassick. The music video for "California", also directed by Giles Dunning, features Wainwright performing the song karaoke-style while reading lyrics from a monitor that projects a black-and-white video of Rufus and Martha dressed in 1940s garb. The video also features Wainwright and his band performing the song out of character. "The Tower of Learning", originally written for Baz Luhrmann's 2001 film Moulin Rouge!, was resurrected when Wainwright "saw this guy whose eyes were very beautiful, and all of a sudden the whole subject of falling into someone's eyes and how electrifying that can be" inspired him. "Grey Gardens" is a tribute to the documentary film of the same name and Thomas Mann's Death in Venice, written as if Tadzio (a character from the novel) is in the Beales' mansion and Wainwright is "Little Edie". "Rebel Prince", once described as flag-wavingly homoerotic, tells the story of a hotel resident waiting for his prince to rescue him before he "[rids his] dirty mind of all of its preciousness." Written from the perspective of a companion praising his queen, "The Consort" sounds of a "dusty minuet beamed in from the harpsichord Elizabethan age." "One Man Guy", originally written by Wainwright's father (folk musician Loudon Wainwright III), features vocals by friend Teddy Thompson and Wainwright's sister Martha Wainwright. Tangari called the cover "faithful and endearing", admitting Wainwright's performance "proves [he] has at least a touch of dad's folk roots in him." Wainwright said the following of "Evil Angel": The simple "In a Graveyard" has been described as a "soulful