Wilderness (The Handsome Family album)

Wilderness is the ninth studio album by alternative country duo The Handsome Family. It was released in May 2013 by Carrot Top Records. Wilderness is an often surreal concept album about nature, with each song named after an animal.[2]

Wilderness
Studio album by The Handsome Family
Released	May 14, 2013
Genre	Alternative country
Length	52:41
Label	Carrot Top, Loose Music
The Handsome Family chronology
Scattered (2010) Wilderness (2013) Unseen (2016)

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	76/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[2]
The A.V. Club	B+[3]
PopMatters	7/10[4]

Reception

The album was well received by critics: according to Metacritic, the album has received an average review score of 76/100, based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[1] James Monger of AllMusic noted the album's Kafkaesque, dreamlike quality, praising the "remarkably affecting" song "Wildebeest," about the death of 19th-century songwriter Stephen Foster.[2] A.V. Club reviewer Christopher Bahn described Wilderness as "rootsy, literary country-rock that’s a little like a collaboration between Hank Williams and Edgar Allan Poe," and called it "one of the strongest, most cohesive albums of their career."[3]

Track list

All tracks are written by The Handsome Family.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Flies"	3:41
2.	"Frogs"	4:41
3.	"Eels"	4:25
4.	"Octopus"	3:33
5.	"Owls"	3:59
6.	"Caterpillars"	4:41
7.	"Glow Worm"	5:33
8.	"Lizard"	5:12
9.	"Woodpecker"	4:22
10.	"Gulls"	4:20
11.	"Spider"	3:54
12.	"Wildebeest"	4:20

References

1. "Wilderness Reviews". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
2. Monger, James. "Wilderness - The Handsome Family". Allmusic.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
3. Bahn, Christopher (2013-05-14). "The Handsome Family: Wilderness". Avclub.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
4. Arado, Matt (2013-05-10). "The Handsome Family: Wilderness". Popmatters.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08.