Wanderer

Cat Power - Wanderer
Critic Score
Based on 37 reviews
2018 Ratings: #292 / 890
User Score
Based on 210 ratings
2018 Rank: #412
Liked by 8 people
October 5, 2018 / Release Date
LP / Format
Domino / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS

90
AllMusic

As tender as it is uncompromising, Wanderer is exactly the album Marshall needed to make at this point in her career and life. It's some of her most essential music, in both senses of the word.

87
Paste

Aa marvelously minimalist, generously arranged and smartly written glance into one woman’s mind.

85
Northern Transmissions

With an emotional honesty that even sinks into her covers, Cat Power delivers a heavy if occasionally tonally stagnant album.

80
Crack Magazine

Marshall’s breath punctuates sparse ballads, driven by rolling piano, expansive guitar and a lyrical map of riddles and wisdoms.

80
The Guardian

It feels ... as if Marshall is drawing on music that comes naturally to her and shaping it to her own ends.

80
Clash

Beautifully produced by the songwriter herself, ‘Wanderer’ is an ode to Americana’s dusty dead roads, its rusted down vehicles and the flickering lights of long-forgotten barrooms.

80
The Independent

Understated, beautifully crafted and always emotionally involving, Wanderer shows an artist who has found strength in her convictions, and a new pace of life.

80
Rolling Stone

Cat Power, lays full claim to the title of her tenth album, Wanderer with the authority of a blueswoman who’s seen some shit, alternately conjuring trances and slapping you out of them, projecting clear-eyed, uncompromising strength on one of the most fragile-sounding sets she’s ever made.

80
The Skinny

Stylistically, Wanderer doesn’t break much new ground for Marshall. What is powerful about this album is her ability to imbue each word with every ounce of what she has lived – as a woman, a mother, an artist.

80
The Observer

Squint your ears, and the album comes full circle back through The Greatest and You Are Free to some of Marshall’s earliest work, drawing on folk, blues and rule-shrugging DIY methods.

80
The Line of Best Fit

Maybe it’s a little lighter, a little more carefree, a little sparer than her last few – or maybe it’s just that she doesn’t sound so hurt – but this feels like a step into something fresh. If not a creative rebirth, then a creative renewal.

80
DIY

Her tenth studio album might be written about Cat Power’s own journey, but it also doubles as an essential compass for finding your way through the dark.

80
FLOOD Magazine

Wanderer, whether as a one-off tribute to the wandering musical spirit of the outsiders and weirdos that have come into her life, or as a new beginning for herself, is a triumph of raw emotion, old direction, and new meaning.

80
NME

This album is a quiet triumph, the understated work of an artist honouring herself and her creativity.

80
musicOMH

Throughout, Marshall feels in total command, stripped back but self-assured, singing about everything from Trumpian dysfunction (In Your Face) and family relationships (Horizon) to corporate greed (Robbin Hood).

75
Consequence of Sound

Wanderer is neither as harrowing as Moon Pix nor as kaleidoscopic as Sun, but it shows a mature artist who rides the waves of tumultuous experience — no less excellent for containing her multitudes.

74
Pitchfork

On her first album in six years, Chan Marshall roams the many moods of her songwriting with a careful, soft-spoken power.

74
GIGsoup

'Wanderer' is a collection of intimately gorgeous, well-written, and uniquely performed indie folk songs that cement her status as one of our generation's great singer-songwriters.

70
Slant Magazine

While her vulnerability here lends itself to melancholy, it’s also triumphant and resolute.

70
Exclaim!

After being out of the spotlight for years, Marshall hasn't lost her style. Producing Wanderer entirely on her own, you get the sense that she has ventured into new territory.

70
American Songwriter

Marshall’s tenth studio album, in an erratic if fascinating 25-year career, is an intimate, multifaceted reflection of her always complex, frequently indistinct character.

70
The 405

Cat Power has a veritable walk-in closet of skeletons to draw on. But along with heavy-hitting content and fine penmanship, it’s the deft touch with which Chan Marshall curates the songs that really elevates Wanderer.

70
PopMatters

Cat Power's ability to centralize her self-worth and artistic integrity imbues Wanderer with a sanguine and empowering assurance.

70
Drowned in Sound

Marshall has created an album with a nuance and polish she didn’t have in her early days of just her and her guitar. Even if the territory is somewhat familiar, she’s never made an album quite like this before.

65
Spectrum Culture

Marshall sounds as though she has finally arrived at a comfortable place in Wanderer after decades of exhausting work, and the effort can be heard with the songs echoing her past accomplishments.

60
Loud and Quiet

‘Wanderer’ may occasionally feel a little too thin, melodically, but it continues to reaffirm that no one quite writes songs of experience like Chan Marshall.

60
The Telegraph

Wanderer is an album of peculiar little songs that you won't hear in anyone else's catalogue. It is ungainly, odd, and at times almost amateurish.

60
No Ripcord

Marshall charts her own path in Wanderer, fully in command of her artistic vision as she courses through an unimpeded trail. This freedom comes at a cost, though, resulting in some undeveloped material that could've used an extra revision or two.

58
A.V. Club

There’s nothing inherently wrong about Wanderer being mannered—but, unfortunately, the album’s subtlety is also often its undoing.

NotDonkey
75

The stripped back blues and folk sound from Chan’s earlier work makes a comeback on this album, and it’s done well. This project feels like what should have followed her 2003 album with its similarities in sound. Chan sings with bluesy inflections over spacious sounding folk instrumentals. There really isn’t a whole lot that stands out in the songwriting here, but it simply works into the style of music that she’s trying to present. It’s good soulful music with ... read more

85

I'm rather smitten with this one; Cat's voice is like a musical hot water bottle in these increasingly long nights.

Best tracks: You Get, Woman, Black

lucas_eleotero
75

Wanderer-9/10
In your face-7.5/10
You get-7.5/10
Woman-10/10⭐️
Horizon-8.5/10
Stay-7.3/10
Black-7.5/10
Robbin hood-7.2/10
Nothing really matter-7.7/10
Me voy-7/10
Wanderer/exit-7/10

NotDonkey
75

The stripped back blues and folk sound from Chan’s earlier work makes a comeback on this album, and it’s done well. This project feels like what should have followed her 2003 album with its similarities in sound. Chan sings with bluesy inflections over spacious sounding folk instrumentals. There really isn’t a whole lot that stands out in the songwriting here, but it simply works into the style of music that she’s trying to present. It’s good soulful music with ... read more

sorrowfulsoil
80

wanderer it is an exemplary work

lucas_eleotero
75

Wanderer-9/10
In your face-7.5/10
You get-7.5/10
Woman-10/10⭐️
Horizon-8.5/10
Stay-7.3/10
Black-7.5/10
Robbin hood-7.2/10
Nothing really matter-7.7/10
Me voy-7/10
Wanderer/exit-7/10

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Track List

1Wanderer
1:14
80
2In Your Face
4:11
80
3You Get
3:43
77
4Woman
4:50
90
5Horizon
4:24
74
6Stay
3:58
76
7Black
3:56
68
8Robbin Hood
2:10
68
9Nothing Really Matters
3:12
69
10Me Voy
4:00
82
11Wanderer / Exit
2:19
72
Total Length: 38 minutes
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Added on: July 18, 2018