Album of the Week: Cat Power - Wanderer
by Mac Wilson
October 15, 2018
Cat Power are back at the best possible time: during an fall full of melancholy feelings, Chan Marshall returns with her suitably melancholy new album, Wanderer.
This is the first new Cat Power album in six years, and represents a departure from 2012's Sun, in that it largely eschews that record's marginally chipper electronica. These are songs stripped down to their barest elements: a collection of sparse, hushed tunes that won't necessarily leap out of a radio speaker, but whose subtlety will endear themselves to patient listeners.
A track that may hold up as a highlight is the cover of Rihanna's "Stay" — Chan Marshall is no stranger to recording cover versions of songs, even releasing entire albums of covers. While she is capable of deconstructing songs to reinvent them as her own, she largely sticks close to what made Rihanna's original so compelling, and it fits seamlessly with the rest of the album.
In its own way, Wanderer already feels like a cornerstone of the autumn mood, and is another wonderful entry in Cat Power's catalog.