The debut album from New York's
Stranger Cat
, which consists of Brooklyn singer/songwriter and frequent
Sufjan Stevens
collaborator
Cat Martino
and producer/multi-instrumentalist
Sven Britt
, offers up a sonically lush, emotionally charged blast of soaring, electronically induced, R&B-kissed indie pop that invokes names like
Bat for Lashes
,
Susanne Sundfor
Florence + the Machine
, and
Jessie Ware
. Conceived during a period of personal upheaval that saw
Martino
retreating into the Sierra Nevadas for some serious self-evaluation, it should come as no surprise that the aptly named
In the Wilderness
is consumed by a sense of deep-seated yearning, but between
Britt
's tasteful and inventive production (his fractured, but never jerky, drum programming and innate sense of when to let things breathe and when to let it rip gives the album a nice flow) and
's powerhouse vocals, it never comes off as melodramatic. This is music to search by, scan with, and occasionally sing along to, and though it's relatively untethered stylistically, the duo is more than capable of keeping their multiple plates spinning. Whether it's shimmering bedroom indie-electro (the near perfect first single "Sirens"), angular,
St. Vincent
-esque experimental chamber pop ("Fig Tree"), glacial, melancholic synth-pop (the
-assisted, very
Age of Adz
-sounding "I Promise"), or sumptuous, straight-up contemporary R&B (the sensual and soulful title track),
delivers the goods with equal amounts of indie cool and genuine heart, but it's ultimately
's velvety croon that serves as the glue that keeps everything from flying off into the ether. ~ James Christopher Monger