The Bachelor is the fourth studio album

Studio album

A studio album is an album made up of tracks recorded in the controlled environment of a recording studio. A studio album contains newly written and recorded or previously unreleased or remixed material, distinguishing itself from a compilation or reissue album of previously recorded material, or...

 by English-Irish singer-songwriter Patrick Wolf

Patrick Wolf

Patrick Wolf is an English-Irish singer-songwriter from South London. Patrick utilises a wide variety of instruments in his music, most commonly the ukulele, piano and viola...

. The organ parts were recorded using the organ at St. George's church in Brede, East Sussex

Brede, East Sussex

Brede is a village and civil parish in the Rother District of East Sussex, England. It is located eight miles north of Hastings and four miles west of Rye...

. The album charted at #49 on the UK album charts. The album was mixed at The Chairworks

The Chairworks

The Chairworks is a residential recording studio complex located in Morrison Street, Castleford, near Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 2001 by Ryan Jarvis composer and producer...

 recording complex in Yorkshire.

Album information

The Bachelor was originally part of a double album entitled Battle, named for the Sussex town

Battle, East Sussex

Battle is a small town and civil parish in the local government district of Rother in East Sussex, England. It lies south southeast of London, east of Brighton and east of the county town of Lewes...

 where he recorded the new material. On 19 February 2009, Wolf announced that Battle had been split into two releases, The Bachelor and The Conqueror. The Bachelor would be released 1 June 2009 and The Conqueror would see release in 2010. Speaking of the decision to split the release into two albums rather than the double album, Wolf expressed the desire "not to overload people with too much". He has since suggested that while The Bachelor was practically finished, he felt that there were still "a couple of songs or stories to be written for the second part".

A preview of the album as well as 2 tracks presumed to be appearing on The Conqueror were released on the Bandstocks website, and later featured on Wolf's MySpace

MySpace

Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....

 page, entitled "Battle Megamix".

Guest musicians on The Bachelor include Atari Teenage Riot

Atari Teenage Riot

'Atari Teenage Riot' is a German digital hardcore group formed in Berlin in 1992. The name was taken from a Portuguese Joe song 'Teenage Riot' from the 'Teen-age Riot' album, with the word 'Atari' added as an Atari ST computer was used to create compositions...

's Alec Empire

Alec Empire

Alec Empire is a German musician who is best known as a founding member of the band Atari Teenage Riot. Also a prolific and distinguished solo artist, producer and DJ, he has released well over a hundred albums, EPs and singles and remixed over seventy tracks for various artists including Björk...

 (Vulture, Battle), actress Tilda Swinton

Tilda Swinton

Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...

 (Oblivion, Thickets, Theseus), folk musician Eliza Carthy

Eliza Carthy

Eliza Carthy is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing fiddle. She is the daughter of English folk musicians singer/guitarist Martin Carthy and singer Norma Waterson.-Life and career:...

 (The Bachelor) and avant-garde electronic pioneer Matthew Herbert

Matthew Herbert

Matthew Herbert , also known as Herbert, Doctor Rockit, Radio Boy, Mr. Vertigo, Transformer, and Wishmountain, is a British electronic musician...

 (Who Will?).

The first single from the album is "Vulture", which was released on 20 April 2009, with "Hard Times" as the second single, released in July. The third single, Damaris was released on 14 December 2009.

The album artwork features Patrick in a similar position to his first album, Lycanthropy, and also features a similar font placement.

Reception

ClashMusic.com awarded The Bachelor 9/10, reviewer Teri Williams writing: "(It is), like so many romantic yarns before it, epic - and a whispered breath away from sheer perfection."

Track listing

All songs were written by Patrick Wolf, except track 4, which takes its lyrics from the old Appalachian folk song "Poor Little Turtle Dove", track 9 and 13 by Patrick Wolf and Alec Empire.

1. "Kriegspiel" – 0:47
2. "Hard Times" – 3:33
3. "Oblivion" (featuring Tilda Swinton
   Tilda Swinton
   Katherine Mathilda "Tilda" Swinton is a British actress known for both arthouse and mainstream films. She has appeared in a number of films including The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, The Beach, We Need to Talk About Kevin and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her...
   
    as "The Voice of Hope") – 3:24
4. "The Bachelor" (featuring Eliza Carthy
   Eliza Carthy
   Eliza Carthy is an English folk musician known for both singing and playing fiddle. She is the daughter of English folk musicians singer/guitarist Martin Carthy and singer Norma Waterson.-Life and career:...
   
   ) – 3:13
5. "Damaris" – 5:28
6. "Thickets" (featuring Tilda Swinton as "The Voice of Hope") - 4:08
7. "Count of Casualty" – 5:03
8. "Who Will?" – 3:31
9. "Vulture" – 3:22
10. "Blackdown" – 5:21
11. "The Sun Is Often Out" – 3:33
12. "Theseus" (featuring Tilda Swinton as "The Voice of Hope") – 4:40
13. "Battle" – 3:07
14. "The Messenger" – 3:39

Certifications, peaks and sales

Country/Region	Peak position
United Kingdom	49