Album of The Year
M. Ward - A Wasteland Companion

M. Ward

A Wasteland Companion

70
Based on 13 reviews
2012 Ranking: #129 / 227

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REVIEWS


83
A.V. CLUB

Ward’s simple expressions of creativity and enjoyment are heartening, a reassurance that there’s always something new to anticipate and explore.

80
DROWNED IN SOUND

Like all Ward’s best records, his eighth solo album plays like an intimate knees up. You’ll swoon. You’ll smile. You’ll spin it over and over again.

80
CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND

With A Wasteland Companion, Ward strikes the perfect balance between his heartbreaking ballads and the pop swing he’s capable of

70
NME

It was the subtle undercurrents that made Ward’s genre shifting so palatable on ‘Hold Time’, and on occasion that’s lost here.

70
MUSICOMH

Ward seems eclectic – haphazard even – but without any suggestion that he’s overreaching, or that he’s scrabbling through the annals in a desperate bid for ideas.

70
UNDER THE RADAR

This is music that could apply to any age or era, a pure soundtrack for a long road ahead or a journey back in time.

69
BEATS PER MINUTE

For all its gorgeous expansiveness and new perspectives, it never comes together to be incisive or essential.

63
PITCHFORK

Of all Ward's efforts, the one now called A Wasteland Companion actually seems the least interested in offering any kind of existential salve, largely too preoccupied with making sense of its own self to forge any bridges outward.

60
THE 405

After a few listens, it doesn’t hold the same quiet command of 2001’s End of Amnesia or the aged, weary vibes of 2003’s Transistor Radio.

55
PASTE

A Wasteland Companion becomes increasingly easy to ignore as its run time drags on.

50
NO RIPCORD

Much of A Wasteland Companion suffers from the unimaginative fluff that plagued 2009's Hold Time.


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RELATED ALBUMS
M. Ward - Hold Time

Hold Time

(2009)
M. Ward - Post-War

Post-War

(2006)



COMMENTS
CURRENTLY TRENDING ON AOTY

DETAILS

Released: April 10, 2012
Format: LP
Label: Merge
Genre: Folk

RATINGS

83A.V. Club [srcarrow]
80Consequence of Sound [srcarrow]
80Drowned in Sound [srcarrow]
70AllMusic [srcarrow]
70musicOMH [srcarrow]
70NME [srcarrow]
70PopMatters [srcarrow]
70Under The Radar [srcarrow]
69Beats Per Minute [srcarrow]
63Pitchfork [srcarrow]
60The 405 [srcarrow]
55Paste [srcarrow]
50No Ripcord [srcarrow]

TRACK LIST
  1. Clean Slate (For Alex & El Goodo) 
  2. Primitive Girl 
  3. Me and My Shadow 
  4. Sweetheart 
  5. I Get Ideas 
  6. The First Time I Ran Away 
  7. A Wasteland Companion 
  8. Watch the Show 
  9. There's a Key 
  10. Crawl After You 
  11. Wild Goose 
  12. Pure Joy

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Added on: January 23, 2012