Rufus Wainwright makes pop music that sounds like it is of, by, and for another era--as if his competition were not Jewel, Britney Spears, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but rather Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and George and Ira Gershwin. With just a single album to his name, Wainwright has already wowed critics and earned a degree of popular success. Part of the public's response may be purely physical. The singer/songwriter is tall and built on a thin frame, and his looks are of the matinee-idol variety.