Lewis conducts what navel-gazing there is on The Voyager with her characteristic mordant wit, and she has shed none of her way with an irresistible, deadpan pop melody.
It's heavy midlife crisis material but The Voyager plays lightly, offering a warm balm of Southern California sounds.
You wouldn't assume a troubled backstory from the music — Lewis has channeled her grievances into a statement of life-affirming and ebullient guitar pop.
This feels like next-level stuff, a crystallisation of everything she's done before, focused and as in control as she's ever been.
It’s fun, compulsive listening, and really highlights Jenny Lewis’s songwriting credentials with a clutch of great, unpretentious pop songs.
The Voyager mostly dispenses with genre exercises and style hopping in favor of a gorgeously organic rock record.
There isn’t a weak track on the album - just varying degrees of excellence, which, come to think of it, is a neat summation of Lewis’ career to date.
This is another LP of stellar Americana-flavored indie rock from one of our generation's most reliable singer/songwriters.
The Voyager finds Jenny Lewis--earthbound for these past few years--readying herself for lift-off.
The Voyager is a pretty record that hides a fundamental, slow burning sadness.
The Voyager is her strongest solo release and best overall effort since Rilo Kiley’s 2004 LP, More Adventurous.
Her rich, heartbreaking voice remains, the drug references are still there, and her skilled musicianship still underpins every song. The Voyager is a grower.
That newfound sophistication does nothing to dull the emotional punch of Lewis’ songwriting, though it makes an odd fit for some of her more off-the-cuff couplets.
It’s not anchored in one particular scene, but plays as broadly California, with sly nods to the Byrds in the guitars, the Go-Go’s in the vocals, and Randy Newman in the wry humor.
The Voyager hangs together as a loose yet polished California-pop travelogue of Lewis' endlessly messy life.
These are her fullest arrangements ever ... yet no one upstages Lewis. She may sing of darkness, but she’s never shone brighter.
On The Voyager, Lewis is confident and sharp, her incisive, dark lyrics juxtaposed by bright, sunny instrumentals that help the album go down easy while rewarding repeat listens.
The Voyager is a collection of catchy songs intended for those who have lost confidence in catchy song
For all its merits – her voice is utterly pure, and the altpop textures luscious – The Voyager lacks unity.
The contrast between the bitter lyrics and the sweet music makes for an easy enough listen, but we couldn’t help yearning for more bite to these songs.
Too many songs here feel slackly constructed, and the overall musical mood only rarely connects with its lyrical content, leaving The Voyager as a moderately successful testimonial effort.
It’s an incredibly well-observed, poignant look at what it means to be Jenny Lewis right now, yet lacks the indefinable quality to make it a classic.
The Voyager is less of an addition to her back catalogue than a summary of her work to date, dipping into different eras of Lewis, and not settling on any.
Ultimately, the pop sheen Adams applies on 'The Voyager' is at odds with Lewis' songs. By always opting for directness, he's failed to let her do justice, musically, to the darkness of her inspiration.
A mildly interesting, pretty sounding collection of simple, over produced pop-rock tunes with a slight touch of alt-rock and indie flavour to some of them. It does sound pleasant for the most part, with some tracks being a little more elegantly arranged than others, and Lewis' voice sounds beautiful through and through, but this shiny, slick shell envolves the content so deeply that it gets much less relatable and organic than it should.
The Voyager is a strong collection of pop rock songs that mostly talk about one's journey through life and existential thoughts of a person going towards middle-age. I absolutely loved songs like Just One of the guys, and The New You. Lewis has a keen ability to put words together in a record. Great pop rock record.
This album is undoubtedly a ‘grower’, but is still her weakest solo effort to date. Produced by Ryan Adams, ‘Voyager’ is still a cut above the rest of many female solo artists, capturing a sound which exploits Lewis’s rich, dulcet, voice to its full potential. The first three tracks set the bar high. The opening track, ‘Head Underwater channels an Americana indie-rock with warm melodies, whilst she looks cuttingly back on life now that she has passed the ... read more
“The Voyager” falls into a trap of being a long-awaited, perfectly good album from an artist who has made great ones, and therefore leaves fans disappointed. This was a critical hit with many outlets, and it’s only a good thing to see Jenny Lewis get praised; she’s one of the best indie frontwomen of her generation, and the soul-searching approach to this record is undoubtedly commendable. It’s her most personal to date (just listen to “Just One of the ... read more
1 | Head Underwater 4:08 | 77 |
2 | She's Not Me 4:09 | 75 |
3 | Just One of the Guys 3:51 | 70 |
4 | Slippery Slopes 3:38 | 74 |
5 | Late Bloomer 5:13 | 74 |
6 | You Can't Outrun 'Em 3:30 | 72 |
7 | The New You 3:27 | 73 |
8 | Aloha & the Three Johns 4:04 | 75 |
9 | Love U Forever 4:28 | 74 |
10 | The Voyager 3:30 | 72 |
#4 | / | Billboard |
#4 | / | SPIN |
#8 | / | TIME |
#10 | / | Amazon |
#11 | / | Grantland (Steven Hyden) |
#11 | / | Vulture |
#14 | / | PopMatters |
#15 | / | Under the Radar |
#16 | / | Paste |
#17 | / | Cosmopolitan |