> Switch to Advanced Search

New & Current Releases
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Music In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

72 The Academy Is...
75 The Accidental
68 Adele
70 Adem
67 The Airborne Toxic Event
71 Alkaline Trio
72 Alphabeat
52 Ashanti
84 Bajofondo
56 David Banner
76 The Baseball Project
77 Beck
77 Black Affair
59 Black Ghosts
76 Black Kids
68 Booka Shade
74 Brazilian Girls
90 The Bug
71 Glen Campbell
75 Brendan Canning
69 The Charlatans
72 Coldplay
78 The Cool Kids
65 Alice Cooper
65 CSS
66 Miley Cyrus
45 Dandy Warhols
81 Danny!
74 Death Vessel
58 Dirty Pretty Things
57 Disturbed
72 Dr. Dog
75 Jakob Dylan
77 Earlimart
75 Brian Eno + David Byrne
83 Alejandro Escovedo
62 The Faint
56 Feeder
65 The Fiery Furnaces
88 Fleet Foxes
64 iForward, Russia!
61 The Fratellis
73 The Futureheads
59 G Love & Special Sauce
66 The Game
73 Inara George With Van Dyke Parks
81 Girl Talk
61 Golden Animals
64 Mike Gordon
81 Al Green
42 G-Unit
64 Albert Hammond, Jr.
67 Ed Harcourt
78 Emmylou Harris
84 Harvey Milk
79 Juliana Hatfield
61 Hawthorne Heights
82 HEALTH
86 Hercules And Love Affair
77 John Hiatt
82 High Places
76 Zach Hill
85 The Hold Steady
63 Vanessa Hudgens
76 Human Highway
77 James Hunter
66 Ida Maria
69 Jaguar Love
69 Jewel
76 Joan As Police Woman
79 Jamey Johnson
70 Jonas Brothers
59 Judas Priest
57 Kerli
73 Ladytron
69 Cyndi Lauper
72 Leila
76 Lykke Li
82 Lil Wayne
82 Lindstrom
78 Little Jackie
62 Lloyd
55 Los Lonely Boys
73 Love As Laughter
79 Aimee Mann
80 Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog
75 John Mellencamp
71 The Melvins
71 Men Without Pants
71 Midnight Juggernauts
74 Mirah
63 Alanis Morissette
56 Motley Crue
74 The M's
83 The Music Tapes
54 The Music
71 My Brightest Diamond
70 My Morning Jacket
63 N.E.R.D. [The Neptunes]
71 Nas
79 Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis
84 Randy Newman
78 Nine Inch Nails
75 The Notwist
75 Conor Oberst
52 The Offspring
80 One Day As A Lion
75 Oneida
82 Opeth
62 The Orb
62 James Pants
43 Katy Perry
74 Lee "Scratch" Perry
84 Sam Phillips
56 The Pigeon Detectives
72 Plies
73 Robert Pollard
81 Ponytail
64 Primal Scream
80 Ra Ra Riot
48 The Rascals
71 Ratatat
64 Re-Up Gang
48 Gavin Rossdale
71 The Rumble Strips
65 RZA
74 Scars On Broadway
72 Ron Sexsmith
85 Shearwater
39 Shwayze
81 Sigur Rós
78 Silver Jews
78 Slipknot
74 Sloan
79 Patti Smith and Kevin Shields
73 Solange
69 Son, Ambulance
63 Sam Sparro
76 Spiritualized
65 Rick Springfield
65 Staind
90 Steinski
47 Stereo MC's
72 Stereolab
70 The Stills
75 Subtle
83 Sugarland
67 Supergrass
70 Matthew Sweet
76 Irma Thomas
84 Teddy Thompson
57 Three 6 Mafia
76 Tilly And The Wall
64 The Ting Tings
72 Tittsworth
68 James Jackson Toth
72 Randy Travis
65 Usher
74 The Verve
69 The Virgins
71 Loudon Wainwright III
77 Martha Wainwright
85 The Walkmen
67 The Watson Twins
67 Ben Weaver
81 The Week That Was
64 Weezer
76 Paul Weller
76 White Denim
79 Cassandra Wilson
87 Dennis Wilson
76 Wire
78 Wolf Parade
61 XX Teens
55 Yung Berg
66 The Zutons

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.

You Are Free
by Cat Power


8.9

based on 26 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 20 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album

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.

LABEL:	Matador
RELEASE DATE:	18 February 2003
DISCS:	1 disc
GENRE(S):	Indie, Rock, Singer-Songwriter

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...

100

E! Online

Melodically exquisite, this is a triumph of minimalism.

All Music Guide

You Are Free may take awhile longer than expected to unfold, but once it does, its excellence is undeniable.

Delusions of Adequacy

One of the best albums you'll hear in 2003.

Splendid

Recorded with an ear for detail but guided by a loose hand, this is the most open, welcoming Cat Power album yet.

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.

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.

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.

Neumu.net

You aren't free after all, because once you've let the album in, you may never shake it off again.

Village Voice

You Are Free demonstrates a subtle, hopeful change in sentiment--a relief from Cat Power's melancholy.

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.

Salon.com

An evocative composite of soulful melodies, with stripped-down piano and hushed guitar-and-vocal ballads.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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]

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.

You Are Free by Cat Power

You Are Free
by Cat Power