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Cat Power

Matthew Fluxington

22:40 / 19.11.02

I've downloaded the new Cat Power, and I've got to say that most of this album is jaw-dropping, really amazing music. I never thought she'd be able to top Moon Pix, but I think she may have. Most of these new songs are full-band tunes, some of them vaguely rocking, all of them with the same concentrated emotional power of all the best songs off of Moon Pix or The Covers Record, but with this incredible confidence that was somewhat lacking before. I can't stop listening to these songs - "Free", "He War", "I Don't Blame You", "Speak For Me", and especially the lovely "Good Woman". This

Have any of you heard this yet? If you've got file-sharing capabilities, get on it. It's not out til late February.

Matador has an MP3 of "He War" here.

00:14 / 20.11.02

Who's the band on the new record?

Most of Moon Pix had the Dirty Three backing her, yeah? I find it interesting when an already-established band moonlights with a singer--the chemistry is the same and yet somehow different...

Sorry, threadrot on the first reply.

Matthew Fluxington

11:14 / 20.11.02

Nah, that's not threadrot.

I have no idea who she's playing with, though I do understand that Dave Grohl is playing drums on a couple of the songs, and Eddie Vedder sings back up on two songs. On "Good Woman", it works really well, but on "Evolution" he's singing in his lowest register while she sings fairly high, and it's kind of jarring. I haven't gotten used to "Evolution" yet.

13:03 / 20.11.02

you.. heard .. new .. Cat Power songs.. you... bastard..

I was going to start a thread just about the *announcement* that her record was going to come out early next year, it made me so happy..

'Moonpix' and 'the Covers Record' haven't been more than 3 feet from my CD player since I bought them.. seriously, I know every note.. and I've near worn out a tape of Cat Power radio sessions that my similarly obsessed friend put together..

Hang on - Eddie Vedder?? - you're fucking kidding! That's like the vocal equivalent of throwing shit at the Mona Lisa!

Murray Hamhandler

15:24 / 20.11.02

I haven't the ability to hear the Marshall/Vedder tracks just yet, but I can hear their voices meshing well in my head. They have the same vocal quality, sort of. A robust, singing-through-the-nose-but-in-a-pleasant-way thing.

If this does indeed top or even come close to Moon Pix, I will be overjoyed. One of the best albums in many moons, that one is.

15:29 / 20.11.02

That sample song is sweeeeet.

She would kill for me. Kill for me.

19:15 / 20.11.02

Ive got the whole thing...come and get it.

Regrettable Juvenilia

19:35 / 20.11.02

Quite a coincidence - I saw Cat Power live last night, and was going to start a thread about that and the prospect of a new album from her...

It was a fantastic gig, and quite a contrast to the other occasion I've seen her play, when the combination of a noisy, chatty crowd, Chan's own utter craziness and the fact that Lift To Experience had just blown everyone's minds made it something of a fiasco - painful, actually, in all the wrong ways. This was a sit-down venue, obviously very much geared towards acoustic music, and the result was that the audience gave Cat Power's very fragile live show the respect it deserved. I also get the impression she may have recently gained more confidence and in turn competence as a live performer, going by some other recent reports of her gigs.

Unfortunately it's hard for me to describe the gig because a lot of it was new material, or at least unfamiliar material (Cat Power has a habit of blending one song into another without pause, sometimes even mixing two songs together simultaneously, or singing snatches of lyrics over other guitar or piano parts). There were several songs I remembered from the previous gig that I know I like - particularly the one that seems to describe a party scene, smashing bottles etc - it's a fond memory, it would seem, and she sings about how if the person she's remembering was here now, they'd be "getting into frisky business" or something like that.

Highlight of the show for me was probably 'Satisfaction' - her version on The Covers Record is famous for omitting the chorus, so brilliantly at the close of the version she played last night she put the chorus back in, complete with mournful "hey hey hey, that's what I say" sung in that aching voice... Awe inspiring.

Up to half my kingdom for a copy of the new album...

Matthew Fluxington

00:28 / 21.11.02

I haven't fully gotten into "Evolution" yet, but the song "Good Woman" with Vedder (and a children's choir) on backing vocals is a thing of heartbreaking beauty. Rizla, I assure you, even the staunchest Vedder-haterz will have their hearts melted by this song. It's subtle and sweet, it's not like he's busting out as if he's doing "Even Flow" or something. If you're more familiar with Pearl Jam, his voice on the two songs is more like it is as on "The Long Road" or "Parting Ways".

There's a song called "Free" which I think will likely be a single for this album, and it's just BEGGING to be covered. By punk-pop bands. Because it rocks, in an early-Wire or new wave sort of way.

It's just a great record. I can't get enough of it, really.

Regrettable Juvenilia

18:43 / 22.12.02

Every album she does has at least one song that completely emotionally devastates me ('Metal Heart', 'I Found A Reason') - and 'Good Woman' is another one. Honestly, it just kills me, I'm not sure it's something I could necessarily bear to listen to at certain times - at others, I know I'll need to. 'Maybe Not' slays me as well, though in a slightly different way...

Matthew Fluxington

20:53 / 22.12.02

I understand that bit about not being able to bear her best songs - I kind of have to steel myself before listening to songs like "Good Woman", "Sea Of Love", "I Found A Reason", "American Flag", and especially "Colors And The Kids". It can be just a little too much emotionally sometimes.

Out of curiosity, Flyboy - which version of "Good Woman" do you prefer; the album version of the solo live version I included on the second disc?

10:26 / 23.12.02

OK, so I've got a copy of the new record, minus a functional track 6 and a tracklisting, and I'm in two minds about it to be honest..

The album's more rock-y aspects really don't sit well with me at all to be honest.. a couple of the songs early on with electric guitars and drums.. it sounds like it could almost be run-of-the-mill alt-country or even arena-rock.. really puts me off..

But then on the other hand, the quieter, unaccompanied songs are as beautiful as anything she's ever done before.. (even, in fact, especially the one with Eddie singing - Flux, you were correct, it's lovely)..

Yet somehow the whole thing just doesn't sit right with me.. it's as if there are bits of the Cat Power I love shining through a sort of haze of over-produced radio rock elements..

Particularly unnerving is that song where she sings about a series of childhood friends who came to a bad end.. I find it hard to listen to, but not in the way that was intended.. just because moments of it are so heart-smashingly beautiful, but then some of the lyrics are so cliched and banal and over-earnest.. it's like the kind of song that should have been written by a Snoop-Dog style rapper who's just decided to grow a conscience and talk about social issues, to the general embarrassment of the whole world..

Not my favourite variety of Cat Power. It makes me want to go and listen to my tape of her radio sessions or the Covers Record again to get an undiluted hit.

Maybe I just need to listen to it more.

10:31 / 23.12.02

What happened to #6? Sorry I didn't give it a listen before I sent it... The tracks should be labeled if you play it in your computer or another disc player that displays text...

Matthew Fluxington

13:14 / 23.12.02

it sounds like it could almost be run-of-the-mill alt-country or even arena-rock...haze of over-produced radio rock elements..

Whoa! What kind of alt-country/arena arena rock/radio rock are you listening to over there in England? It's nothing like anything on You Are Free over here...

09:09 / 24.12.02

What happened to #6? Sorry I didn't give it a listen before I sent it...

It sort of goes jittery half way through. That's OK though, I mean, it's still totally cool to have a copy months before release..

The tracks should be labeled if you play it in your computer or another disc player that displays text...

Oh right. Doh! I didn't think of that..

Whoa! What kind of alt-country/arena arena rock/radio rock are you listening to over there in England?

weeell.. maybe that's an exaggeration.. but (prepare for a rather odd metaphor) I think a lot of the time this album sounds more like a 70s rock festival than a deserted cabin in the Catskills.. if that makes sense to anyone..

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

22:31 / 20.06.03

Well, I went to see her last night. And I'm pretty impressed. She's not nearly as shy as I was led to believe (indeed, as she came on stage she wiggled her bum at the audience and then proceeded to run around giving people strawberrys). She seems like a charmingly endearing eccentric type, and any little details (such as her having a bit of difficulty with her voice and coughing in songs) was largely forgotten as she joked around and danced silly dances.

I didn't know many of the songs (i'd only heard "he war" previously), but I certainly enjoyed her cover of "Psychic Hearts", and even her white stripes cover. I just can't place the others yet. It was an intriguing experience though, and she was all over the place (in a good, hyperactive, rambling, sort of way). It was nothing like what I expected anyhow.

I was suitably impressed to buy a copy of the new record, which has been slowly growing on me all day. Especially the tracks Flux mentions way back up the top there.

10:43 / 23.06.03

Hey, I was there too Suedehead.

Cat Power gave my friend a Strawberry!

A fantastic performance - unmarred, nay improved, by the chaos and unpredictability which seems to characterise her live appearances..

"Psychic Hearts" and "Maybe Not" and "Werewolf" were fantastically intense. Her habit of mixing up bits from about four different songs together is astounding.. if anyone else did that it would just kind of be annoying and confusing, but Cat Power - yeah, it works perfectly..

And she sang a cover of 'Black Sabbath'!!! And then turned it into a twisted, improvised version of Peaches 'Fuck the Pain Away'! I mean.. WOW! Although it was clearly a jokey cover version, it think the memory of Chan Marshall, face hidden by hair like Sadako out of Ring, singing "what is this that stands before me / figure in black that points at me.." is going to have me shivering in the dead of night for years to come.

Mostly though, It wasn't quite the dark, emotional performance I was expecting - I didn't cry like last time. It was closer to .. entertaining.

I don't quite know whether that's good or bad..

Incidentally, my view of 'You Are Free' has changed fairly dramatically since my last post in this thread. I am now in full agreement with those who claim it as a masterpiece - it feautres at least half a dozen songs that are so beautiful I shall not even attempt to describe them. It also features some songs that I think are fairly mediocre and a few elements that still really bug me - but then shouldn't all masterpieces be slightly confusing and flawed? Unspeakably amazing record anyway .. it just needed time to grow on me.

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

12:46 / 23.06.03

Riz, sometimes I wonder if I actually know you, while not knowing that it is in fact you (rizla). Or something.

Regrettable Juvenilia

17:36 / 10.01.04

The things she does best, nobody does better, do they?

Regrettable Juvenilia

22:53 / 09.11.05

True indeed. I'm currently listening to the title track from Cat Power's forthcoming new album The Greatest - you can download the song here. God, when she uses that voice to sing a decent tune and has production as lush as this, it just fucking slays me. The string section quite deliberately quotes 'Moon River', and suddenly the idea of Chan Marshall as Holly Golightly makes a certain amount of sense. Cat Power fans should also check out 'Great Waves' from the new Dirty Three Cinder, which features her vocals in a departure from their usual instru-mentalism.

Matthew Fluxington

23:15 / 09.11.05

Don't get your hopes up, Flyboy. It's a pretty lousy album.

Regrettable Juvenilia

07:00 / 10.11.05

Can you expand on that, funcrusher?

00:37 / 16.08.07

I don't think that the Greatest was a terrible album. It was kind of a concept genre album, and if you weren't too into that genre then it probably didn't appeal as much as You Are Free, which in retrospect was an amazing album.

I'm looking forward to Sun and the Covers II albums, next year and september respectively.

"what's next? I'm out of time, losing my touch, I can feel.
If you speak for me would you see the same signs ? Do you know how to read between the lines? "

Regrettable Juvenilia

08:53 / 16.08.07

I like The Greatest, but I have to say that I'm really not a fan of her current live set-up, and it gives me some concern about new recorded material. I've seen her twice this year, in London and at the Pitchfork Festival in Chicago, both times billed as Cat Power & Dirty Delta Blues. That's telling: her new live set-up and the sound at these shows gives equal weighting to her backing band as it does to her. The obvious problem with this is that you need a pretty fucking special backing band to justify that, given Chan Marshall's voice. Sadly, as you might guess from their name, Dirty Delta Blues are not that band.

Maybe this is just the kind of music Chan Marshall wants to make right now: but whereas on The Greatest I think her love of soul music really works, live the end result just sounds... I dunno, like some kind of Jefferson Airplane tribute that I'm not really feeling. Worst of all, she does a version of 'Satisfaction' that completely either misses or deliberately reverses what was so great and distinctive about her take on it on The Covers Record. It's just a bog standard bar band cover.

Yes, it's great that she's currently not so fucked up that she can play an actual show which includes whole songs rather than tuning and re-tuning her guitar and giggling nervously, but I feel fortunate to have caught a couple of other live gigs around the time of You Are Free, when she had her shit together but also still sounded like Cat Power...

I do quite like her new thing of wearing her hair so she looks like Lady Sovereign, though.

Regrettable Juvenilia

09:12 / 16.08.07

(I should point out that Dirty Delta Blues are named 'cos they contain members of the Dirty Three and Delta 72 - but it's still a shit name.)

In other news, Chan Marshall is now the face of Chanel. Funny old world.

10:30 / 16.08.07

Yeah, this Dirty Delta Blues business is rubbish. It was the worst thing I saw at the Dirty Three ATP. Not helped by really bad, muddy sound (kind of appropriate...) with un-intelligible vocals. It just made me think of Blueshammer from the Ghost World film... Is she doing an album with them, or is this just a live thing and we'll be back to regular service soon...?

17:10 / 16.08.07

In other news, Chan Marshall is now the face of Chanel. Funny old world.

I think something just burst inside me.

23:12 / 21.04.08

Cat Power recently appeared on NPR's "World Cafe", did an interview and performed a few songs from Jukebox.

Her version of Hank William's "Ramblin Man" was particularly good, I think. You can listen to it on the site following the first link above.

16:37 / 23.04.08

That interview fills me with hope - she seems so (and this sounds kind of awful) cogent.

Those who saw her live before the soul revival thing she's on now will know what I mean. But she's got it together, it sounds like - without losing that great voice.