Dinner at Eight (song)

[3][5] According to Vanity Fair, "A seductive melody belies the angry first verse, prefiguring the compassionate final couplet, which has Rufus recalling a moment from his boyhood when he wept as Loudon was leaving Montreal after one of his infrequent visits.

Wainwright acknowledges his father's love, but then repeats the opening verse, which is critical of their relationship, suggesting reconciliation will be difficult.

[3] According to Wainwright, "Dinner at Eight" is a "good representation" of his relationship with his father,[6] and "starts a little rough but is ultimately a love song".

[5] Jim Beviglia of American Songwriter said the song is "beautiful but devastating", and "sits at the end like a silent killer, creeping up to break your heart".

[3] Furthermore, he wrote, "On 'Dinner at Eight,' [Wainwright] delivered the kind of towering ballad that all artists crave, even if it took unearthing some ugly family history to do it...

"[3] The Advocate's Michael Giltz called the song "wrenching", and in his review of Want One, said "Dinner at Eight" was one of three tracks on the album that made Wainwright's music "more convincingly personal and sincere than ever".