Cat Power

Cat Power is one of the music world's few renewable resources. Despite receiving much praise for her 2003 release You Are Free, Chan Marshall, under the moniker Cat Power, has always been forced to bear the label of a disagreeable performer on the edge of breakdown. This is mostly due to her tendency to scurry off stage in sobs, but 2006 was the year to shake those habits. With the release of her near-perfect sixth record The Greatest, and a successful tour with The Memphis Rhythm Band, Chan Marshall grew. 2007 has been no different as Cat Power continues to tour and has recently become the first woman to receive the Sixth Annual Shortlist Music Award, beating out the likes of Tom Waits, Joanna Newsom, Beirut and Regina Spektor. Her newfound maturity allows Cat Power to shrug off the preconceived notions about her temperament and present herself as a singer/songwriter full of credibility.

The Greatest is Cat Power's most warm and inviting release to date. With familiar tones of home, Marshall pulls us into to her smoky back-room bar full of bluesy, soul-influenced pop songs. There are numerous tracks indicating Marshall's recent upswing in outlook, as well as some chronicling the difficulties it took getting there. Upbeat arrangements such as "Could We" and "Lived in Bars" and the fiddle-tinged "Empty Shell," are all fairly optimistic territory for Marshall. These are nestled alongside more familiar sounding, eerie numbers such as "The Moon" and a plodding, foreboding closer "Love and Communication," all displaying a breadth of range that is extended further by the musicians she chose to back her on the album.

A pilgrimage to Memphis allowed Marshall to recruit expert soul musicians the likes of Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, Leroy "Flick" Hodges, and Steve Potts, and confirms that Marshall had a clearly defined plan for the back-porch feel of these songs. With string sections that saunter in and out of songs, nothing's out of place and nothing's allowed to interfere with Marshall's sultry vocals.

Since the beginning of her career, Marshall's allure has been her voice. It only requires the simplest accompaniment from a sole piano or guitar, proving that her songs have the strength to stand on their own nimble frames. "Hate" features a lone guitar and vocal, expressing gloomy themes that contrast the album's more hopeful tracks. In Cat Power's earlier days this song could easily be read as another self-loathing memo to herself, but in this album's context it becomes an exorcism covered in rivers of reverb and redemption. When she repeats the lines, "I hate my self and I want to die" it seems like a method for driving such morbid feelings out of the soul once and for all.

We already knew Cat Power had the potential to reach perfection on record, as evidenced on her consistently solid string of albums since 1994. The recent discovery is her newfound love for live performance. On a July 7th show at Brooklyn's McCarren Pool Park collective mutterings from the crowd surfaced, wondering if Ms. Marshall would indeed come out on stage and perform. But the new Marshall is bold and truly seemed happy to be performing, as she rocketed through her new material, and a few carefully chosen cover songs. She strutted from one end of the stage to the other, constantly moving her hands as she sung, using her excess energy to rearrange her hair between every song.

Perhaps Cat Power's story is one that is easy to root for because it is one of redemption and as recent history has proved, triumph. It's all too easy to watch artists fade away and make the familiar remark, "I saw that one coming." But Cat Power remains a strong force that treats her craft seriously and tenderly, reassuring a fertile career and a dedicated fan base.

By Brett Oronzio

Cat Power's Lived in Bars on YouTube:


Cat Power on:
Wikipedia
Myspace
The Internet