Cat Power

Wanderer

Domino Records

Having come of age during the grunge and Riot Grrrl movements of the early 1990s and found kindred spirits among New York’s avant-garde experimentalists – Sonic Youth drummer Steve Shelley was an early musical helpmate – Cat Power is now a veteran exponent of a brand of barbed, confessional, leftfield song-writing which has since drawn many younger women into its slipstream. Annie Clark (aka St Vincent) and Merrill Garbus (Tune-Yards) are just two.

Power’s first studio album in six years follows 2012’s Sun, though where that album was animated and expansive, ripe with instrumentation and buzzing with energy, Wanderer is a more intimate proposition. Gone is the electricity – literally – replaced instead by acoustic guitars and lo-fi piano (you can often hear Power’s pedal movements). It’s only on Woman, a duet with Lana Del Rey, that she flexes her musical muscles and adds production to match. Elsewhere songs such as the heavily folk-influenced title track or the drone-based Horizon feel more suited to the coffee-house or the late-night bar – which only serves to make their rawness more keenly felt. An emotionally-wrought set, with some standout moments of eerie beauty.

BARRY DIDCOCK