I love the fact that Chan Marshall calls herself "Cat Power." I don't know why she does this, or what it is supposed to mean, but I love it. In fact, if I didn't already have a fairly interesting name, I would seriously consider changing mine to Cat Power, too. But anyway...
I've now heard four of Cat Power's CDs. My very favorite is the one-song 18-minute Willie Deadwilder CD (included with the Speaking for Trees DVD) which is some kind of masterpiece—her vocal backed by only fingerpicked acoustic guitar singing a rambling, meandering, meditative, and totally engaging short story. I also like The Covers Record quite a lot. You Are Free would place a distant third. The Greatest... well, isn't... it's not a bad record but it would still end at the bottom of my little Cat Power list. (Well, actually that Speaking for Trees DVD would be way at the very bottom... but let's not get into that right now...)
The gaudy and shiny hot pink and gold album cover is your first hint that The Greatest will be something of a departure from her previous efforts. Turns out that the biggest difference—and the biggest distraction—is Cat Power's band this time around. It's a fairly large group including piano, guitar, bass, and drums plus occasional pedal steel, organ, sax, trumpet, and even strings. Her vocal delivery, though, hasn't changed much and it's a good thing the lyrics are printed inside the CD because the bigger the band gets, the more buried and unintelligible her voice becomes.
The overall feel of this group (which apparently includes some legendary Memphis studio musicians) is somewhere squarely in the middle of the indie rock/pop/folk/alt-country road—sort of a slightly over-medicated shoegazing C&W sound, fronted by a Norah Jones/Hope Sandoval hybrid. You might even call this "Starbucks Music." Whether that's an insult or a compliment (or even a meaningful description) I'm not sure, but that's what came to mind more than once while I was listening to The Greatest.
The album begins well with the short and sweet title tune, but then we go into a downward slide as the band starts to dominate the proceedings—the plodding piano chords and stiff drumming especially start to wear thin after awhile. Then, on track six, something suddenly sounds awfully familiar... "Willie Deadwilder and Rebecca..." Could it be? Yes, it's that gorgeous epic song (here retitled "Willie") reduced to a dreary mid-tempo two-stepping ballad with full backup band and annoying vocal overdubs. While I could listen to the 18-minute original over and over again for at least an hour, this new version becomes unbearable long before it finally ends a grueling six minutes later. What are you doing to your own beautiful song? Serious demerit points! Bad kitty-Cat Power... bad!
Article comments
1 - Joe Battista
I checked out the samples on Amazon. I predict a track from this record will soon be used in a Volkswagen commercial. Your "Starbucks music" comment was dead on.
2 - Scott Butki
Excellent review. I love Cat Power's cover of the MJB song.
3 - John Britisher
Nah, don't understand the Starbucks comment (they play Norah Jones and Franz Ferdinand in my local obtrusive coffee chain, zzzzz).
I'm trying to think of anyone else who is producing music that sounds like this, past or present. Nope, no one I can think of and therefore this is a great record. It sounds lush, southern, rhythm 'n' bluesy, alternative and all at the same time.
I also like the You Are Free record alot, but I think this is by far her most ambitious musical journey yet and inspired in her choice of muicians. Right on for darkness!