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Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
You Are Free
Universal acclaim
Based on 26 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 20 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Matador
Release Date: 18 February 2003
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock, Singer-Songwriter
Summary
Chan Marshall's first album of new material since 1998 was recorded in Los Angeles with Adam Kasper (Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam), who in turn brought in friends such as Dave Grohl and Eddie Vedder.
Also By This Artist: Dark End Of The Street [EP] Jukebox The Covers Record The Greatest
Also On The Web: Matador Official Album Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
All Music Guide
You Are Free may take awhile longer than expected to unfold, but once it does, its excellence is undeniable.
Read Full Review >Splendid
Recorded with an ear for detail but guided by a loose hand, this is the most open, welcoming Cat Power album yet.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle
Marshall has a voice as distinctive and enchanting as Billie Holiday, capable of summoning the same emotions in the listener -- awe, lust, bewilderment, a burning desire to reach out and shelter the delicacy of it from all the crude harshness of the world.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
You Are Free is full of arresting, serene beauty, but as an album-- as that quantifiable object-- it has composite failings. Sans a handful of lesser inclusions and tributes, the imaginary, shorter version of You Are Free is flawless.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
When Dave Grohl's scruffy drumming enters, themusic finally lives up to the second half of her stage name. [21 Feb 2003, p.150]
Spin
The guest cast's presence never infringes on the album's overcast beauty. [March 2003, p.120]
Rolling Stone
Free may be her most beautiful album, as well as her cagiest: There are gaunt rock songs and ramshackle ballads, all painted with bold, sure strokes that belie her ambivalence.
Read Full Review >Neumu.net
You aren't free after all, because once you've let the album in, you may never shake it off again.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
You Are Free demonstrates a subtle, hopeful change in sentiment--a relief from Cat Power's melancholy.
Read Full Review >Nude As The News
This mixture of revealing honesty and defiant self-confidence pervades the majority of You Are Free, an affecting and unforced 14-track album that stands as arguably her most diverse and rewarding effort to date.
Read Full Review >Salon.com
An evocative composite of soulful melodies, with stripped-down piano and hushed guitar-and-vocal ballads.
Read Full Review >Junkmedia
The album's last third slows to the glacial pace of 2001's Covers Record with underdeveloped song fragments rendered in a numbing, spare style. But the album's first half more than makes up for it with Marshall's inimitably concise songwriting painting roses on demons and frowning children alike.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Rarely breaking from a single, unrelenting mood, Free has a tendency to repeat itself: It could stand to be broken up by more uptempo tracks like "He War," particularly since Marshall does well with them.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
Mostly, it's Chan's wonderfully bold and understated piano and guitar work that makes 'You Are Free' what it is, a collection of shapely and becoming lo-fi oddities.
Read Full Review >Flak Magazine
Two or three too many songs dilute the impact of the album, dragging it from the lofty heights of masterwork to a level of mere disturbed brilliance.
Read Full Review >Uncut
Sparse yet graceful, these 14 songs of love and loss interpret wispy folk and slow-burning country via brittle, lo-fi angularity. [Mar 2003, p.100]
Dusted Magazine
You Are Free almost has two disparate styles, and that would be the criticism here. Yet that's the result of her particular mania: stand up, shout then quickly retreat to your seat and hide your face.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
A polished, carefully crafted set of beautiful, intense songs that lay bare the singer’s heart as honestly and effectively as anything she’s attempted before.
Read Full Review >Mojo
With You Are Free it feels like she's reached some kind of accomodation between a celebration of her vocal gift and a context within with she can happily offer it to everyone else. [Mar 2003, p.102]
The Wire
What the album lacks in innovation, it more than makes up for with its sheer edginess. [#228, p.59]
Q Magazine
It's not exactly a party, but Marshall's songwriting and cooing delivery remain fierce and otherly, redolent of romantic encounters in strange wood cabins. [Mar 2003, p.114]
Launch.com
She's probably an EP artist at heart. Or someone for whom the 20-minute sides of vinyl would discipline everything perfectly. So slice the CD in half and enjoy.
Read Full Review >Alternative Press
Musically, it doesn't seem like Chan has gone anywhere. [March 2003, p.88]
Blender
Sadly, distracting overembellishments dog her sixth album. [#14, p.133]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 8.9 (out of 10) based on 20 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Jorge R gave it a10:
I dont have the album, but I have heard all the songs and thay are great. Im in love with that girl. Chan I love you!!!!!
sam r gave it a9:
flawed but oddly perfect.
J C gave it a10:
This is an amazing album, with the exception of one song
Aaron F gave it an 8:
Very good. I agree with most of the things people are saying about this album below...but, and there's always a but, the last three or four tracks could've been cut. Everything is really great on this album, there's just a bit too much of it (Another upbeat cut could've also broken the doldrums). Otherwise fantastic job, Chan!
Benjamin Bunny gave it a 6:
Maybe I've seen her smashed onstage too many times, maybe I miss the genuinely spooky catharsis of older LPs like "What Would The Community Think" (still her best) but on this album Chan Marshall comes off as disingenous and (at worst) cloying. Most of it is pretty listenable but instead of letting real demons loose, she just seems to be half-heartedly putting on poses here. Makes me sad for all the wrong reasons.
Paul D. gave it a 10:
simply put - fu*cking amazing. one of the greatest albums of 2003 without a doubt. on the surface it may seem simplistic, but you'll soon come to appreciate its true depth.
tim d gave it a 10:
This seems to be shapping up to be the most underrated album of the year (maybe even the decade). It shows variety in nuance not seen anywhere else in music. Her voice is the most impressive floating around these days.
