My favorite cat is back after a six year long hiatus, and her claws are sharper than ever.
Chan Marshall, better known by her alias Cat Power, is a great example of an artist with integrity. Whatever happens around her, she has always managed to withstand trends and expectations and remain the artist she wants to be. This also despite sometimes considerable personal problems, including her devastating stage-fright, which lead to drug and alcohol abuse.
After releasing her albums on Matador for two decades, she has left the company for Domino. The reason is that Matador wanted to see a more commercial record than Wanderer. This album, just like her previous releases, is a product of the emotions and frame of mind that needs to be told right now. There is no room for compromises.
Wanderer is a understated, emotional, tender and uncompromising album. Although there are several stylish musical ornaments, it's mainly Cat Power's singing that is at the center. And, in truth, she is a brilliant singer, maybe above anything else. You can call her singer / songwriter and "indie", but it's the soul and above all the blues in the voice that gives her a unique expression. This is also the reason why she has been so successful with many seemingly impossible covers. Cat Power is not a singer who has an extreme vocal range, but her soul and intuition is hard to beat. She is never bland - her emotions always shine through, both live and on album.
The best thing about Wanderer is the coherent and intoxicating mood that really connects you with Cat Power's emotional life. There are hardly any proper "hits" on the album, something that Cat Power probably isn't looking for either. The cover of Rihanna's "Stay" therefor feels a bit unnecessary, although it isn't bad by any means, but it's her own compositions that stand out.
Lana Del Rey is a guest singer in "Woman" but is barely heard and her presence is a pure parenthesis. Chan Marshall has fun with auto-tune in the otherwise brilliant "Horizon". Overall, Wanderer is a show of strength when it comes to singing, songwriting and artistic integrity. Something that wasn't very obvious in the slightly more crowd-pleasing and poppy 2012 predecessor "Sun". With Wanderer, she relies heavily on her true strengths, good song-writing and brilliant vocals, and altogether it's an excellent album that couldn't be signed by anyone other than Cat Power.
